Motivated by the recent neutron-scattering experiment on Rb${}_{2}$Cu${}_{3}$SnF${}_{12}$ [Nature Phys. 6, 865 (2010)], we investigate the effect of Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions in a theoretical model for the magnetic structure of this material. Considering the valence bond solid ground state, which has a 12-site unit cell, we develop the bond operator mean-field theory. It is shown that the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions significantly modify the triplon dispersions around the $\ensuremath{\Gamma}$ point and cause a shift of the spin-gap (the minimum triplon gap) position from the $K$ to $\ensuremath{\Gamma}$ point in the first Brillouin zone. The spin gap is also evaluated in exact diagonalization studies on a 24-site cluster. We discuss a magnetic transition induced by the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions in the bond operator framework. Moreover, the magnetization process under external magnetic fields is studied within the exact diagonalization approach. We find that the results of both approaches are consistent with the experimental findings.
Motivated by the recent neutron-scattering experiment on Rb2Cu3SnF12 [Nature Phys. 6, 865 (2010)], we investigate the effect of Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions in a theoretical model for the magnetic structure of this material. Considering the valence bond solid ground state, which has a 12-site unit cell, we develop the bond operator mean-field theory. It is shown that the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions significantly modify the triplon dispersions around the \ensuremathΓ point and cause a shift of the spin-gap (the minimum triplon gap) position from the K to \ensuremathΓ point in the first Brillouin zone. The spin gap is also evaluated in exact diagonalization studies on a 24-site cluster. We discuss a magnetic transition induced by the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions in the bond operator framework. Moreover, the magnetization process under external magnetic fields is studied within the exact diagonalization approach. We find that the results of both approaches are consistent with the experimental findings.
Motivated by a recent experiment on Rb2Cu3SnF12, where spin-1/2 Cu2+ moments reside on the layers of kagome-like lattices, we investigate quantum ground states of the antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on a series of deformed kagome lattices. The deformation is characterized by a weaker exchange coupling $\ensuremath{\alpha}J$ on certain lattice links appropriate for Rb2Cu3SnF12 with $\ensuremath{\alpha}=1$ corresponding to the ideal kagome lattice. In particular, we study possible valence bond solid phases using the perturbation theory around isolated dimer limits, dimer series expansion, and self-consistent bond operator mean-field theory. It is shown that the valence bond solid phase with a 36-site unit cell of the ideal kagome lattice is quite sensitive to a small lattice distortion as the kind discovered in Rb2Cu3SnF12. As a result, we find that a more likely quantum ground state in Rb2Cu3SnF12 is the valence bond solid phase with a 12-site unit cell, where six dimers form a pinwheel structure, leading to strong modification of the elementary triplet and singlet excitation spectra in the deformed kagome lattices.
A spin-1 Heisenberg model on trimerized kagome lattice is studied by doing a low-energy bosonic theory in terms of plaquette triplons defined on its triangular unit cells. The model considered has an intratriangle antiferromagnetic exchange interaction J (set to 1) and two intertriangle couplings ${J}^{\ensuremath{'}}>0$ (nearest neighbor) and ${J}^{\ensuremath{''}}$ (next nearest neighbor; of both signs). The triplon analysis performed on this model investigates the stability of the trimerized singlet ground state (which is exact in the absence of intertriangle couplings) in the ${J}^{\ensuremath{'}}\ensuremath{-}{J}^{\ensuremath{''}}$ plane. It gives a quantum phase diagram that has two gapless antiferromagnetically ordered phases separated by the spin-gapped trimerized singlet phase. The trimerized singlet ground state is found to be stable on ${J}^{\ensuremath{''}}=0$ line (the nearest-neighbor case), and on both sides of it for ${J}^{\ensuremath{''}}\ensuremath{\ne}0$, in an extended region bounded by the critical lines of transition to the gapless antiferromagnetic phases. The gapless phase in the negative ${J}^{\ensuremath{''}}$ region has a coplanar ${120}^{\ensuremath{\circ}}$ antiferromagnetic order with $\sqrt{3}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}\sqrt{3}$ structure. In this phase, all the magnetic moments are of equal length, and the angle between any two of them on a triangle is exactly ${120}^{\ensuremath{\circ}}$. The magnetic lattice in this case has a unit cell consisting of three triangles. The other gapless phase, in the positive ${J}^{\ensuremath{''}}$ region, is found to exhibit a different coplanar antiferromagnetic order with ordering wave vector q=(0,0). Here, two magnetic moments in a triangle are of the same magnitude, but shorter than the third. While the angle between two short moments is ${120}^{\ensuremath{\circ}}\ensuremath{-}2\ensuremath{\delta}$, it is ${120}^{\ensuremath{\circ}}+\ensuremath{\delta}$ between a short and the long one. Only when ${J}^{\ensuremath{''}}={J}^{\ensuremath{'}}$, their magnitudes become equal and the relative angles ${120}^{\ensuremath{\circ}}$. The magnetic lattice in this q=(0,0) phase has the translational symmetry of the kagome lattice with triangular unit cells of reduced (isosceles) symmetry. This reduction in the point-group symmetry is found to show up as a difference in the intensities of certain Bragg peaks, whose ratio ${I}_{(1,0)}/{I}_{(0,1)}=4{sin}^{2}(\frac{\ensuremath{\pi}}{6}+\ensuremath{\delta})$ presents an experimental measure of the deviation $\ensuremath{\delta}$ from the ${120}^{\ensuremath{\circ}}$ order.
In recent work, we argued that a particular algebraic spin liquid (ASL) may be the ground state of the S=1/2 kagome lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnet. Furthermore, this state, which lacks a spin gap, is appealing in light of recent experiments on herbertsmithite [ZnCu3(OH)6Cl2]. Here, we study the properties of this ASL in more detail using both the low-energy effective field theory and Gutzwiller-projected wave functions of fermionic spinons. We identify the competing orders of the ASL, which are observables having slowly decaying power-law correlations---among them we find a set of magnetic orders lying at the M points of the Brillouin zone, the familiar $\mathbit{q}=0$ magnetic ordered state, the ``Hastings'' valence-bond solid (VBS) state, and a pattern of vector spin-chirality ordering corresponding to one of the Dzyaloshinskii--Moriya (DM) interaction terms present in herbertsmithite. Identification of some of these orders requires an understanding of the quantum numbers of magnetic monopole operators in the ASL. We discuss the detection of the magnetic and VBS competing orders in experiments. While we primarily focus on a clean system without DM interaction, we consider the effects of small DM interaction and argue that, surprisingly, it leads to spontaneously broken time-reversal symmetry (for DM interaction that preserves XY spin rotation symmetry, there is also XY magnetic order). Our analysis of the projected wave function provides an estimate of the ``Fermi velocity'' vF that characterizes all low-energy excitations of the ASL---this allows us to estimate the specific heat, which compares favorably with experiments. We also study the spin and bond correlations of the projected wave function and compare these results with those of the effective field theory. While the spin correlations in the effective field theory and wave function seem to match rather well (although not completely), the bond correlations are more puzzling. We conclude with a discussion of experiments in herbertsmithite and make several predictions.
Quantum spin liquids exhibit fractionalized spin excitations as a consequence of strong quantum many-body effects. The kagome antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model is a promising candidate for a quantum spin-liquid ground state; however, the nature of its excitation spectrum remains controversial, particularly regarding the presence of a spin gap and the gauge structure coupled to fractional quasiparticles. To address these issues, parton approaches have been extensively employed, where spin operators are represented in terms of fermionic or bosonic quasiparticles within the Abrikosov fermion and Schwinger boson frameworks. Thus far, these approaches have been pursued independently, and it has remained unclear how the results obtained from these frameworks compare, particularly with respect to the spin dynamics and gauge structure of the kagome antiferromagnet. Here, we investigate the dynamical spin structure factor of the antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model with a Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction on the kagome lattice, relevant to herbertsmithite, by employing both approaches. We find that the dynamical spin structure factor obtained from the Abrikosov fermion mean-field theory exhibits dome-shaped features, and that its continuum structure significantly depends on the gauge structure of the spin-liquid ansatz. On the other hand, the Schwinger boson mean-field theory yields a concave-down structure in the low-energy region, distinct from that obtained using the Abrikosov fermion approach. Moreover, incorporating many-body effects beyond the mean-field approximation substantially reduces the low-energy gap and enhances the low-energy spectral weight, consistent with experimental observations. Our results suggest the importance of many-body effects in the Schwinger boson theory for capturing the low-energy spin dynamics of kagome antiferromagnets.
We examine the influence of an anisotropic interaction term of Dzyaloshinskii - Moriya (DM) type on the ground state ordering of the - spin- Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the square lattice. For the DM term we consider several symmetries corresponding to different crystal structures. For the pure - model there are strong indications for a quantum spin liquid in the region of . We find that a DM interaction influences the breakdown of the conventional antiferromagnetic order by (i) shifting the spin-liquid region, (ii) changing the isotropic character of the ground state towards anisotropic correlations and (iii) creating for certain symmetries a net ferromagnetic moment.
The spin-1/2 quantum antiferromagnet on the kagome lattice provides a quintessential example in strongly correlated electron physics in which the effects of both geometric frustration and quantum fluctuation are pushed to their limit. Among possible nonmagnetic ground states, the valence bond solid (VBS) with a 36-site unit cell is one of the most promising candidates. A natural theoretical framework for the analysis of such VBS order is to consider quantum states on a bond connecting the nearest-neighboring sites as fundamental quantum modes of the system and treat them as effectively independent ``bond particles.'' While correctly describing the VBS order in the ground state, this approach, known as the bond operator theory, significantly overestimates the lowest spin excitation energy. To overcome this problem, we take a next logical step in this paper to improve the bond operator theory and consider extended spin clusters as fundamental building blocks of the system. Depending on two possible configurations of the VBS order, various spin clusters are considered: (i) in the VBS order with staggered hexagonal resonance, we consider one spin cluster for a star of David shape and two spin clusters with each composed of a perfect hexagon and three attached dimers, and (ii) in the VBS order with uniform hexagonal resonance, we consider one spin cluster composed of a star of David and three attached dimers. It is shown that the majority of low-energy spin excitations are nearly or perfectly flat in energy. With most of its weight coming from the star of David, the lowest spin excitation has a gap much lower than the previous value obtained by the bond operator theory, narrowing the difference against exact diagonalization results. Despite the better agreement, however, the fact that the lowest spin excitation mostly comes from the star-of-David structure is at odds with the bond operator theory as well as previous series expansion studies. Expecting that the true low-energy spin excitations have contributions from both the star of David and its surroundings, we propose using two superclusters of spin in future work, treating spin excitations from both contributions on a more equal footing.