SS Swiss Muon Source Laboratory for Muon Spin Spectroscopy NUM / LMU Seminar

Date: Monday, June 18, 2007 Time: 1:30 p.m. Room: PSI West, WSLA/008 (SLS Building)

Frustrated magnetism and spin liquids: towards a realization of the S=1/2 kagome lattice in the paratacamite family
Dr. Fabrice Bert Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, Bat. 510, Universit Paris-Sud, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France
Abstract: The idea of destabilizing a Nel state in favour of a spin liquid state by means of geometrical frustration was proposed long ago by Anderson in the context of triangular S=1/2 antiferromagnets (AF) [1]. The underlying concept of a resonating valence bond (RVB) state, built from a macroscopic number of singlets, has proven since then to be a very rich theoretical playground and has indeed been advocated in the important context of hole-doped quantum AF such as High-Tc cuprates, spin ladders, etc. On a theoretical ground, there is a consensus that a RVB state should be the ground state for S=1/2 kagom or pyrochlore Heisenberg AF. Experimentally, non conventional dynamics were revealed in various such corner-sharing AF but no satisfactory experimental realization has been available yet to check in detail the T=0 theoretical predictions for S=1/2 systems. Quite recently, the x=1 compound of the Zn-paratacamite family ZnxCu4-x(OH)6Cl2 has been revealed as a structurally perfect S=1/2 kagom antiferromagnet[2]. The Zn/Cu substitution in this family changes the magnetic lattice from a distorted 3D pyrochlore structure to decoupled kagom layers. After a general introduction to geometrical frustration, I will present recent muon spin rotation (SR) results which prove that, despite a Weiss temperature of 300 K, the x=1 compound is found to have no transition to a magnetic frozen state down to 50 mK as theoretically expected for the kagom Heisenberg antiferromagnet. The relevance to a singlet picture will be discussed. [1] P.W. Anderson, Mater. Res. Bull. 8, 153 (1973) [2] M. P. Shores, E. A. Nytko, B. M. Barlett, and D. G. Nocera, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 127, 13 462 (2005) [3] P. Mendels, F. Bert, M.A. de Vries, A. Olariu, A. Harrison, F. Duc, J.C. Trombe, J.S. Lord, A. Amato, and C. Baines, Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 077204 (2007)
Abstract with figure available at lmu.web.psi.ch/seminar/lmu_seminar_07w25.html

Paul Scherrer Institut CH-5232 Villigen PSI

Contact: Alex Amato