Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:1806.04052 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Spin dynamics of coupled spin ladders near quantum criticality in Ba 2 CuTeO 6

David Macdougal, Alexandra S. Gibbs, Tao Ying, Stefan Weßel, Helen C. Walker, David J. Voneshen, Frédéric Mila, H. Takagi, R. Coldea

Published Nov 7, 2018• 18 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We report inelastic neutron scattering measurements of the magnetic excitations in ${\mathrm{Ba}}_{2}{\mathrm{CuTeO}}_{6}$, proposed by ab initio calculations to magnetically realize weakly coupled antiferromagnetic two-leg spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ ladders. Isolated ladders are expected to have a singlet ground state protected by a spin gap. ${\mathrm{Ba}}_{2}{\mathrm{CuTeO}}_{6}$ orders magnetically, but with a small N\'eel temperature relative to the exchange strength, suggesting that the interladder couplings are relatively small and only just able to stabilize magnetic order, placing ${\mathrm{Ba}}_{2}{\mathrm{CuTeO}}_{6}$ close in parameter space to the critical point separating the gapped phase and N\'eel order. Through comparison of the observed spin dynamics with linear spin wave theory and quantum Monte Carlo calculations, we propose values for all relevant intra- and interladder exchange parameters, which place the system on the ordered side of the phase diagram in proximity to the critical point. We also compare high field magnetization data with quantum Monte Carlo predictions for the proposed model of coupled ladders.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.98.174410

Related papers

Statics and dynamics of weakly coupled antiferromagnetic spin- 1 2 ladders in a magnetic field

Pierre Bouillot, Corinna Kollath, Andreas Martin Läuchli +9 more

We investigate weakly coupled spin-$1/2$ ladders in a magnetic field. The work is motivated by recent experiments on the compound ${(}_{\mathrm{C}}{\mathrm{H}}_{12}{\mathrm{N}}_{)}{\mathrm{CuBr}}_{4}$ (BPCB). We use a combination of numerical and analytical methods, in particular, the density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG) technique, to explore the phase diagram and the excitation spectra of such a system. We give detailed results on the temperature dependence of the magnetization and the specific heat, and the magnetic-field dependence of the nuclear-magnetic-resonance relaxation rate of single ladders. For coupled ladders, treating the weak interladder coupling within a mean-field or quantum Monte Carlo approach, we compute the transition temperature of triplet condensation and its corresponding antiferromagnetic order parameter. Existing experimental measurements are discussed and compared to our theoretical results. Furthermore, we compute, using time-dependent DMRG, the dynamical correlations of a single spin ladder. Our results allow to describe directly the inelastic neutron scattering cross section up to high energies. We focus on the evolution of the spectra with the magnetic field and compare their behavior for different couplings. The characteristic features of the spectra are interpreted using different analytical approaches such as the mapping onto a spin chain, a Luttinger liquid or onto a $t$-$J$ model. For values of parameters for which such measurements exist, we compare our results to inelastic neutron scattering experiments on the compound BPCB and find excellent agreement. We make additional predictions for the high-energy part of the spectrum that are potentially testable in future experiments.

arXiv:1009.0840•Physical Review B•Feb 9, 2011•139 citations

Statics and dynamics of weakly coupled antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 ladders in a magnetic field (PhD thesis)

Pierre Bouillot

We investigate weakly coupled spin-1/2 ladders in a magnetic field. The work is motivated by recent experiments on the compound $\mathrm{(C_5H_{12}N)_2CuBr_4}$ (BPCB). We use a combination of numerical and analytical methods, in particular the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) technique, to explore the phase diagram and the excitation spectra of such a system. We give detailed results on the temperature dependence of the magnetization and the specific heat, and the magnetic field dependence of the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) relaxation rate of single ladders. For coupled ladders, treating the weak interladder coupling within a mean field approach, we compute the transition temperature of triplet condensation and its corresponding antiferromagnetic order parameter. Existing experimental measurements are discussed and compared to our theoretical results. Furthermore we compute, using time dependent DMRG, the dynamical correlations of a single spin ladder. Our results allow to directly describe the inelastic neutron scattering cross section up to high energies. We focus on the evolution of the spectra with the magnetic field and compare their behavior for different couplings. The characteristic features of the spectra are interpreted using different analytical approaches such as the mapping onto a spin chain, a Luttinger liquid (LL) or onto a t-J model. For values of parameters for which such measurements exist, we compare our results to inelastic neutron scattering experiments on the compound BPCB and find excellent agreement. We make additional predictions for the high energy part of the spectrum that are potentially testable in future experiments.

arXiv:1201.5276•Jan 18, 2012•0 citations

Quantum phase transition in coupled spin ladders

Luca Capriotti, Federico Becca

The ground state of an array of coupled, spin-$\frac{1}{2},$ antiferromagnetic ladders is studied using spin-wave theory, exact diagonalization (up to 36 sites), and quantum Monte Carlo techniques (up to 256 sites). Our results clearly indicate the occurrence of a zero-temperature phase transition between a N\'eel ordered and a nonmagnetic phase at a finite value of the interladder coupling $({\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{c}\ensuremath{\simeq}0.3).$ This transition is marked by remarkable changes in the structure of the excitation spectrum.

arXiv:cond-mat/0112206•Physical review. B, Condensed matter•Feb 6, 2002•17 citations

Dynamical Studies of Antiferromagnetic Exchange Interactions in Low Dimensional Quantum Spin Systems

Various forms of antiferromagnetic exchange interaction among quantized spins in one-dimensional and quasi-one-dimensional lattices are examined. Primary results are reported in two real compounds, the sodium vanadate NaV2O5 and the copper germanate CuGeO3, and in a class of compounds of real materials modeled as dimerized antiferromagnetically coupled spin-1/2 chains susceptible to spin-1 impurity doping and that include such examples as the strontium cuprate Sr14Cu24O41 and vanadium pyrophosphate (VO)2P2O7. Sodium vanadate, NaV2O5, a quarter-filled two-leg ladder compound that was originally thought to be composed of magnetic legs and nonmagnetic legs was subsequently shown to be a charge ordered system below room temperature. Initial models of the material as isolated antiferromagnetically coupled spin-1/2 chains can be mapped to the subsequently resolved magnetic system of the charge ordered state with the spins on molecular orbitals of V-O-V rungs antiferromagentically coupled between neighboring rungs either on the same ladder or on neighboring ladders. Comparing the model's dynamic structure factor to inelastic neutron scattering data could distinguish between the proposed spin coupling schemes and consequently reveal the details of the interaction between the lattice and the "zig-zag" charge density as well as the magnetic stabilization of the low temperature phase. Copper germanate, the first and only known inorganic spin-Peierls compound, exhibits a strong temperature dependent exchange coupling pattern among the spin-1/2 Cu2+ chains. Above the spin-Peierls transition temperature an unmodulated antiferromagnetic nearest neighbor exchange interaction J1 competes with an antiferromagnetic next nearest neighbor interaction J2. The next nearest neighbor exchange represents an effective coupling equivalent to the net effect of all longer range exchange interactions. This frustration to the nearest neighbor spin exchange produces a distinctive magnetic susceptibility χ (T) much different from the Bonner-Fisher susceptibility of the spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain with nearest neighbor antiferromagnetic exchange only. The ratio of the second to first nearest neighbor couplings α = J2/J1 ≈ 0.36 is sufficient to open a spontaneous gap in the spin-wave excitation spectrum at low temperatures. Below TSP = 14K, the dynamical structure factor is used to fit the dimerization δ and the exchange interactions J1 and J2 to the inelastic neutron scattering data of CuGeO3 at T = 10K. It is found that both δ and α increase significantly at lower temperatures, relative to the values obtained in the high temperature phase and at the onset of dimeration at 14 K. Static structure factor calculations how Scattering inconsistent with the δ−J1−J2 model and can be attributed primarily to the phonon degrees of freedom but possibly also to the couplings between chains in the b and a directions of the crystal lattice. Structurally dimerized compounds of antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 chains possess dynamic structure factor and magnetic susceptibility features that are very sensitive to doping with magnetic and nonmagnetic impurities. It is shown that the effects of spin-1 impurities are very similar to those of nonmagnetic (S = 0) impurities if the coupling between impurity and native spin is about the same magnitude as or larger than between native S = 1/2 spins. The microscopic origins of the similarity can be appreciated with the consideration that neighboring spins to the impurity find it more energetically favorable to couple to the impurity than the other spins of the lattice. Thus the spin-1 impurity and its neighboring S = 1/2 spins decouple from the lattice, creating a nonmagnetic break in the chain. The spins that now observe a nonmagnetic cluster on one side can couple to the S = 1/2 spins on the other side with a higher AF correlation than in the pure compound since they do not have to have a fluctuating dimer resonating between two neighbors. Such enhancements to the local correlations can stabilize the global AF order in one dimensional compounds as shown in theoretical and experimental studies of CuGeO3. ED calculations of the dynamic structure factor show that S(q, ω) developes states with ω = 0 in the gap at q = π. Magnetic susceptibilites in the presense of spin-1 impurities were obtained for 80 site chains by QMC simulations and for 16 site chains by ED calculations. An impurity concentration-dependent second peak in the low temperature region reveals an increasing second maximum with T as observed in doped copper germanates and suggests that the results of the study are applicable even to phonon mediated dimerization. This is not immediately apparent because spin-phonon coupling could distort the dimerization patterns. However, experimental and theoretical results show that elastic coupling between chains can stabilize the dimerization pattern due to the impurities and the results will still apply.

•Jan 1, 2003•0 citations

z=2 Quantum Critical Dynamics in a Spin Ladder

D. Blosser, Vivek Kumar Bhartiya, David J. Voneshen +1 more

By means of inelastic neutron scattering we investigate finite temperature dynamics in the quantum spin ladder compound (C_{5}H_{12}N)_{2}CuBr_{4} (BPCB) near the magnetic field induced quantum critical point with dynamical exponent z=2. We observe universal finite-temperature scaling of the transverse local dynamic structure factor in spectacular quantitative agreement with long-standing theoretical predictions. At the same time, already at rather low temperatures, we observe strong nonuniversal longitudinal fluctuations. To separate the two, we make use of an intrinsic leg-exchange symmetry of the spin ladder. Complementary measurements of specific heat also reveal striking scaling behavior near the quantum critical point.

arXiv:1806.10392•Physical Review Letters•Dec 13, 2018•28 citations

Asymmetric spin- 12 two-leg ladders: Analytical studies supported by exact diagonalization, DMRG, and Monte Carlo simulations

D. N. Aristov, C. Brünger, Fakher F. Assaad +4 more

We consider asymmetric spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ two-leg ladders with nonequal antiferromagnetic (AF) couplings ${J}_{\ensuremath{\parallel}}$ and $\ensuremath{\kappa}{J}_{\ensuremath{\parallel}}$ along legs $(\ensuremath{\kappa}\ensuremath{\le}1)$ and ferromagnetic rung coupling, ${J}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}$. This model is characterized by a gap $\ensuremath{\Delta}$ in the spectrum of spin excitations. We show that in the large ${J}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}$ limit this gap is equivalent to the Haldane gap for the AF spin-1 chain, irrespective of the asymmetry of the ladder. The behavior of the gap at small rung coupling falls in two different universality classes. The first class, which is best understood from the case of the conventional symmetric ladder at $\ensuremath{\kappa}=1$, admits a linear scaling for the spin gap $\ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\sim}{J}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}$. The second class appears for a strong asymmetry of the coupling along legs, $\ensuremath{\kappa}{J}_{\ensuremath{\parallel}}⪡{J}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}⪡{J}_{\ensuremath{\parallel}}$ and is characterized by two energy scales: the exponentially small spin gap $\ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\sim}{J}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}\text{ }\text{exp}(\ensuremath{-}{J}_{\ensuremath{\parallel}}/{J}_{\ensuremath{\perp}})$, and the bandwidth of the low-lying excitations induced by a Suhl-Nakamura indirect exchange $\ensuremath{\sim}{J}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}^{2}/{J}_{\ensuremath{\parallel}}$. We report numerical results obtained by exact diagonalization, density-matrix renormalization group and quantum Monte Carlo simulations for the spin gap and various spin correlation functions. Our data indicate that the behavior of the string order parameter, characterizing the hidden AF order in Haldane phase, is different in the limiting cases of weak and strong asymmetries. On the basis of the numerical data, we propose a low-energy theory of effective spin-1 variables, pertaining to large blocks on a decimated lattice.

arXiv:1008.1644•Physical Review B•Nov 8, 2010•13 citations
We report inelastic neutron scattering measurements of the magnetic excitations in Ba2CuTeO6{\mathrm{Ba}}_{2}{\mathrm{CuTeO}}_{6}Ba2​CuTeO6​, proposed by ab initio calculations to magnetically realize weakly coupled antiferromagnetic two-leg spin-12\frac{1}{2}21​ ladders. Isolated ladders are expected to have a singlet ground state protected by a spin gap. Ba2CuTeO6{\mathrm{Ba}}_{2}{\mathrm{CuTeO}}_{6}Ba2​CuTeO6​ orders magnetically, but with a small N'eel temperature relative to the exchange strength, suggesting that the interladder couplings are relatively small and only just able to stabilize magnetic order, placing Ba2CuTeO6{\mathrm{Ba}}_{2}{\mathrm{CuTeO}}_{6}Ba2​CuTeO6​ close in parameter space to the critical point separating the gapped phase and N'eel order. Through comparison of the observed spin dynamics with linear spin wave theory and quantum Monte Carlo calculations, we propose values for all relevant intra- and interladder exchange parameters, which place the system on the ordered side of the phase diagram in proximity to the critical point. We also compare high field magnetization data with quantum Monte Carlo predictions for the proposed model of coupled ladders.
We investigate weakly coupled spin-1/21/21/2 ladders in a magnetic field. The work is motivated by recent experiments on the compound (CH12N)CuBr4{(}_{\mathrm{C}}{\mathrm{H}}_{12}{\mathrm{N}}_{)}{\mathrm{CuBr}}_{4}(C​H12​N)​CuBr4​ (BPCB). We use a combination of numerical and analytical methods, in particular, the density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG) technique, to explore the phase diagram and the excitation spectra of such a system. We give detailed results on the temperature dependence of the magnetization and the specific heat, and the magnetic-field dependence of the nuclear-magnetic-resonance relaxation rate of single ladders. For coupled ladders, treating the weak interladder coupling within a mean-field or quantum Monte Carlo approach, we compute the transition temperature of triplet condensation and its corresponding antiferromagnetic order parameter. Existing experimental measurements are discussed and compared to our theoretical results. Furthermore, we compute, using time-dependent DMRG, the dynamical correlations of a single spin ladder. Our results allow to describe directly the inelastic neutron scattering cross section up to high energies. We focus on the evolution of the spectra with the magnetic field and compare their behavior for different couplings. The characteristic features of the spectra are interpreted using different analytical approaches such as the mapping onto a spin chain, a Luttinger liquid or onto a ttt-JJJ model. For values of parameters for which such measurements exist, we compare our results to inelastic neutron scattering experiments on the compound BPCB and find excellent agreement. We make additional predictions for the high-energy part of the spectrum that are potentially testable in future experiments.
We investigate weakly coupled spin-1/2 ladders in a magnetic field. The work is motivated by recent experiments on the compound (C5H12N)2CuBr4\mathrm{(C_5H_{12}N)_2CuBr_4}(C5​H12​N)2​CuBr4​ (BPCB). We use a combination of numerical and analytical methods, in particular the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) technique, to explore the phase diagram and the excitation spectra of such a system. We give detailed results on the temperature dependence of the magnetization and the specific heat, and the magnetic field dependence of the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) relaxation rate of single ladders. For coupled ladders, treating the weak interladder coupling within a mean field approach, we compute the transition temperature of triplet condensation and its corresponding antiferromagnetic order parameter. Existing experimental measurements are discussed and compared to our theoretical results. Furthermore we compute, using time dependent DMRG, the dynamical correlations of a single spin ladder. Our results allow to directly describe the inelastic neutron scattering cross section up to high energies. We focus on the evolution of the spectra with the magnetic field and compare their behavior for different couplings. The characteristic features of the spectra are interpreted using different analytical approaches such as the mapping onto a spin chain, a Luttinger liquid (LL) or onto a t-J model. For values of parameters for which such measurements exist, we compare our results to inelastic neutron scattering experiments on the compound BPCB and find excellent agreement. We make additional predictions for the high energy part of the spectrum that are potentially testable in future experiments.
The ground state of an array of coupled, spin-12,\frac{1}{2},21​, antiferromagnetic ladders is studied using spin-wave theory, exact diagonalization (up to 36 sites), and quantum Monte Carlo techniques (up to 256 sites). Our results clearly indicate the occurrence of a zero-temperature phase transition between a N\'eel ordered and a nonmagnetic phase at a finite value of the interladder coupling $({\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{c}\ensuremath{\simeq}0.3).$ This transition is marked by remarkable changes in the structure of the excitation spectrum.
Various forms of antiferromagnetic exchange interaction among quantized spins in one-dimensional and quasi-one-dimensional lattices are examined. Primary results are reported in two real compounds, the sodium vanadate NaV2O5 and the copper germanate CuGeO3, and in a class of compounds of real materials modeled as dimerized antiferromagnetically coupled spin-1/2 chains susceptible to spin-1 impurity doping and that include such examples as the strontium cuprate Sr14Cu24O41 and vanadium pyrophosphate (VO)2P2O7. Sodium vanadate, NaV2O5, a quarter-filled two-leg ladder compound that was originally thought to be composed of magnetic legs and nonmagnetic legs was subsequently shown to be a charge ordered system below room temperature. Initial models of the material as isolated antiferromagnetically coupled spin-1/2 chains can be mapped to the subsequently resolved magnetic system of the charge ordered state with the spins on molecular orbitals of V-O-V rungs antiferromagentically coupled between neighboring rungs either on the same ladder or on neighboring ladders. Comparing the model's dynamic structure factor to inelastic neutron scattering data could distinguish between the proposed spin coupling schemes and consequently reveal the details of the interaction between the lattice and the "zig-zag" charge density as well as the magnetic stabilization of the low temperature phase. Copper germanate, the first and only known inorganic spin-Peierls compound, exhibits a strong temperature dependent exchange coupling pattern among the spin-1/2 Cu2+ chains. Above the spin-Peierls transition temperature an unmodulated antiferromagnetic nearest neighbor exchange interaction J1 competes with an antiferromagnetic next nearest neighbor interaction J2. The next nearest neighbor exchange represents an effective coupling equivalent to the net effect of all longer range exchange interactions. This frustration to the nearest neighbor spin exchange produces a distinctive magnetic susceptibility χ (T) much different from the Bonner-Fisher susceptibility of the spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain with nearest neighbor antiferromagnetic exchange only. The ratio of the second to first nearest neighbor couplings α = J2/J1 ≈ 0.36 is sufficient to open a spontaneous gap in the spin-wave excitation spectrum at low temperatures. Below TSP = 14K, the dynamical structure factor is used to fit the dimerization δ and the exchange interactions J1 and J2 to the inelastic neutron scattering data of CuGeO3 at T = 10K. It is found that both δ and α increase significantly at lower temperatures, relative to the values obtained in the high temperature phase and at the onset of dimeration at 14 K. Static structure factor calculations how Scattering inconsistent with the δ−J1−J2 model and can be attributed primarily to the phonon degrees of freedom but possibly also to the couplings between chains in the b and a directions of the crystal lattice. Structurally dimerized compounds of antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 chains possess dynamic structure factor and magnetic susceptibility features that are very sensitive to doping with magnetic and nonmagnetic impurities. It is shown that the effects of spin-1 impurities are very similar to those of nonmagnetic (S = 0) impurities if the coupling between impurity and native spin is about the same magnitude as or larger than between native S = 1/2 spins. The microscopic origins of the similarity can be appreciated with the consideration that neighboring spins to the impurity find it more energetically favorable to couple to the impurity than the other spins of the lattice. Thus the spin-1 impurity and its neighboring S = 1/2 spins decouple from the lattice, creating a nonmagnetic break in the chain. The spins that now observe a nonmagnetic cluster on one side can couple to the S = 1/2 spins on the other side with a higher AF correlation than in the pure compound since they do not have to have a fluctuating dimer resonating between two neighbors. Such enhancements to the local correlations can stabilize the global AF order in one dimensional compounds as shown in theoretical and experimental studies of CuGeO3. ED calculations of the dynamic structure factor show that S(q, ω) developes states with ω = 0 in the gap at q = π. Magnetic susceptibilites in the presense of spin-1 impurities were obtained for 80 site chains by QMC simulations and for 16 site chains by ED calculations. An impurity concentration-dependent second peak in the low temperature region reveals an increasing second maximum with T as observed in doped copper germanates and suggests that the results of the study are applicable even to phonon mediated dimerization. This is not immediately apparent because spin-phonon coupling could distort the dimerization patterns. However, experimental and theoretical results show that elastic coupling between chains can stabilize the dimerization pattern due to the impurities and the results will still apply.
By means of inelastic neutron scattering we investigate finite temperature dynamics in the quantum spin ladder compound (C_{5}H_{12}N)_{2}CuBr_{4} (BPCB) near the magnetic field induced quantum critical point with dynamical exponent z=2. We observe universal finite-temperature scaling of the transverse local dynamic structure factor in spectacular quantitative agreement with long-standing theoretical predictions. At the same time, already at rather low temperatures, we observe strong nonuniversal longitudinal fluctuations. To separate the two, we make use of an intrinsic leg-exchange symmetry of the spin ladder. Complementary measurements of specific heat also reveal striking scaling behavior near the quantum critical point.
We consider asymmetric spin-12\frac{1}{2}21​ two-leg ladders with nonequal antiferromagnetic (AF) couplings ${J}_{\ensuremath{\parallel}}$ and $\ensuremath{\kappa}{J}_{\ensuremath{\parallel}}$ along legs $(\ensuremath{\kappa}\ensuremath{\le}1)$ and ferromagnetic rung coupling, ${J}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}$. This model is characterized by a gap $\ensuremath{\Delta}$ in the spectrum of spin excitations. We show that in the large ${J}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}$ limit this gap is equivalent to the Haldane gap for the AF spin-1 chain, irrespective of the asymmetry of the ladder. The behavior of the gap at small rung coupling falls in two different universality classes. The first class, which is best understood from the case of the conventional symmetric ladder at $\ensuremath{\kappa}=1$, admits a linear scaling for the spin gap $\ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\sim}{J}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}$. The second class appears for a strong asymmetry of the coupling along legs, $\ensuremath{\kappa}{J}_{\ensuremath{\parallel}}⪡{J}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}⪡{J}_{\ensuremath{\parallel}}$ and is characterized by two energy scales: the exponentially small spin gap $\ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\sim}{J}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}\text{ }\text{exp}(\ensuremath{-}{J}_{\ensuremath{\parallel}}/{J}_{\ensuremath{\perp}})$, and the bandwidth of the low-lying excitations induced by a Suhl-Nakamura indirect exchange $\ensuremath{\sim}{J}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}^{2}/{J}_{\ensuremath{\parallel}}$. We report numerical results obtained by exact diagonalization, density-matrix renormalization group and quantum Monte Carlo simulations for the spin gap and various spin correlation functions. Our data indicate that the behavior of the string order parameter, characterizing the hidden AF order in Haldane phase, is different in the limiting cases of weak and strong asymmetries. On the basis of the numerical data, we propose a low-energy theory of effective spin-1 variables, pertaining to large blocks on a decimated lattice.