Magnetic frustration

P.Bhatnagar,B.sreeganesh,N.vigneshwar.

Indian institute of science education and research,trivandrum.

CET campus , Kerala, India.

Introduction

Observable magnetic properties of bulk matter arise due to the microscopic magnetic moments of the
atoms in the material. These microscopic interactions involve electrons, and can be categorised as
ferromagnetic and anti ferromagnetic interactions. Ferromagnetic interactions tend to align the spins
of the neighbouring atoms parallelto each other,giving rise to structures with strong magnetisation.
antiferro magnetic interactions tend to align the spins of neighbouring atoms anti parallel to each
other ,giving rise to an antiferromagnetic structures in which the total magnetisation is null.

A system is said to be in it’s ground state or lowest energy state when all the interactions in the
system are satisfied in a similar manner(i.e.,either all the interactions are ferromagnetic or all are
antiferromagnetic). But many a times, the lattice geometry of the system doesn’t allow all the
interactions to be simultaneously satisfied . In such cases the system exists in a higher energy state
and it exhibits ground state degeneracy. This phenomenon is called as magnetic or geometrical
frustration. This phenomenon has interesting quantum effects.

Discussion

The simplest geometry that can exhibit magnetic frustration is a triangular antiferromagnet.

If 2 interactions are antiferromagnetic, then the third can be antiferromagnetic only with respect to
one other spin and not with both the spins simultaneously. So ,the geometry prevents the satisfaction
of all the interactions in a favourable manner. The triangular antiferromagnet as a result has multiple
ground state configurations(degeneracy). The triangular antiferromagnet exhibits 6 degenerate ground
state configurations. This is one feature which distinguishes geometrically frustrated systems from
normal systems ,because normal systems have a single well defined ground state undisturbed by
thermal agitation.

The next higher geometry we consider is that of a square antiferromagnet. In a square antiferro
magnet if all the side wise interactions are antiferromagnetic, then the diagonal interactions have to be
ferromagnetic.

The square antiferromagnet can have 2 denerate ground state configurations and the effect of
geometrical frustation in a square antiferromagnet is not as pronounced as that in the case of a
triangular antiferromagnet, because the interactions are diagonal interactions.
Kagome lattice

The kagome lattice is made up of triangles connected to each other by means of their vertices. Each
vertex is shared by only 2 triangles , so the system as a whole has very low connectivity. So
conformational changes at a vertex will affect only the 2 triangles which share the vertex.

If we consider a kagome lattice antiferromagnet , the magnetic spin moments in each vertex can
either be up or down. The energy difference between an up spin configuration and a down spin
configuration is very less , because such a transition will affect only 2 triangles. So the spins can flip
between various configurations with very little loss of energy. Therefore the kagome lattice system is
expected to show extensive degeneracy.

Spin liquids

Geometrical frustration thus causes the system to remain paramagnetic down to very low
temperatures, tending to absolute zero. In addition, owing to the degeneracy described above, the
system will be able to switch among different configurations in the ground state and so remain
dynamic. This state, characterised by short-range dynamic magnetic correlations, is called a spin
liquid, by analogy with other liquids, which present similar structural correlations. Quantum effects
are expected from such states that remain dynamic right down to absolute zero.

Experimental evidence for magnetic frustration

When cold helium monolayer adsorbed in graphite surfaces were studied ,they were found to form
triangular lattices. When a second layer was adsorbed over the first one , it was found to have unusual
properties. Its heat capacity was measured as a function of temperature above T min =2mK and the
T
C (T )
entropy was extracted from this data using S(T)= ∫ d T . Most of entropy in the considered
Tmin T
temperature range was coming from the spin degrees of freedom that reside on the 3He atoms in the
crystallized second layer. Surprisingly, at high temperatures when the spins decouple, about a half of
the expected entropy (kb log 2 per spin) was missing
This led to a speculation that some unknown but numerous spin degrees of freedom can be excited
even below 2mK, or that the groundstate itself could have finite entropy. This was a consequence of
geometric frustration within the second layer. the atoms nearest to each other in the second layer
form a Kagome lattice. As magnetic order of the spins was experimentally ruled out the missing
entropy originated from the freedom that the spins had in forming various configurations of short-
ranged singlet bonds.

The interesting physics of Kagome antiferromagnets is shaped at very low energy scales, it is
important to explore the nearly ideal systems.

One of the earliest system thought to have frustration is the water ice lattice. Linus pauling was the
first person to discover and develop the theoretical framework behind the fact that as we lower the
temperature of water ice the expected graph of the entropy vs temperature will not be followed, but
there will be a residual entropy even at very low temperatures close to absolute zero. This residual
entropy is called as pauling’s ice entropy.

Geometrical frustration in Ca(VO)2(PO4)2

The best way to determine the presence of geometrical frustration in compounds is to study the
specific heat vs temperature graph of the compound, obtained from experiments. The specific heat of
a substance has 2 contributions to it. At higher temperatures the lattice is agitated and hence the lattive
contribution to specific heat is predominant. At lower temperatures the magnetic contribution is
predominant. The maximum value of the magnetic specific heat _c max mag _ and the shape of the
maximum are characteristic of the magnitude of quantum fluctuations. The enhancement of quantum
fluctuations suppresses correlated spin excitations; therefore _ c max
mag _ is reduced, and the maximum
gets broader.

As we can see from fig.5, the non frustrated square lattice has a sharp and high value of _ c max
mag ,
because quantum fluctuations are less likely in case of a non frustrated system. But in case oa straight
chain lattice we can see that the peak has become broader and the value of _ c maxmag _ has become lesser.
This can be attributed to the fact that a straight chain lattice can have competing ferromagnetic and
antiferromagnetic alignments leading to quantum fluctuations.
In the case of a triangular lattice we can clearly observe that the peak has become a lot broader and
the value of _c max
mag _ has become a lot lesser because a s we have seen the triangular lattice is a highly
frustrated system and it has a highly degenerate ground state configuration, hence quantum
fluctuations are enhanced in this system and the _c maxmag _ is suppressed a lot.