arXiv:cond-mat/0102222 · Physical review. B, Condensed matter
Quantum phases of the Shastry-Sutherland antiferromagnet: Application to SrCu2(BO3)2
C. H. Chung, John Bradley Marston, Subir Sachdev A
Abstract
We study possible paramagnetic phases of antiferromagnets on the Shastry-Sutherland lattice by a gauge-theoretic analysis of fluctuations in a theory with $\mathrm{Sp}(2N)$ symmetry. In addition to the familiar dimer phase, we find a confining phase with plaquette order and a topologically ordered phase with deconfined $S=1/2$ spinons and helical spin correlations. The deconfined phase is contiguous to the dimer phase and in a regime of couplings close to those found in the insulator ${\mathrm{SrCu}}_{2}({\mathrm{BO}}_{3}{)}_{2}.$ We suggest that a superconductor obtained by doping this insulator with mobile charge carriers will be an attractive candidate for observing the anomalous magnetic flux properties associated with topological order.