Nematicity and fractional magnetization plateaus induced by spin-lattice coupling in the classical kagome-lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnet

Masaki Gen and Hidemaro Suwa
Phys. Rev. B 105, 174424 – Published 20 May 2022

Abstract

We investigate the effect of spin-lattice coupling (SLC) on the magnetic properties of the classical kagome-lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnet (KHAF) using improved Monte Carlo updates. The lattice modes are represented by Einstein site phonons, which introduce effective further-neighbor spin interactions in addition to the nearest-neighbor biquadratic interactions. In the weak SLC, the macroscopically degenerate coplanar ground state remains at zero field, while a 3×3 ordered phase accompanied by a 1/3-magnetization plateau appears in external magnetic fields. In the strong SLC, we find a nematic order at zero field and a 1/9-magnetization plateau associated with a 3×3 collinear order. Near the phase transition between the 1/9- and 1/3-plateau states, the ergodicity in the single spin flip is practically broken, and slow dynamics appear. We propose that relevant KHAFs with strong SLC would be realized in spinel-based materials.

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  • Received 7 February 2022
  • Revised 27 April 2022
  • Accepted 9 May 2022

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.105.174424

©2022 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Masaki Gen1 and Hidemaro Suwa2,*

  • 1Department of Advanced Materials Science, University of Tokyo, Kashiwa 277-8561, Japan
  • 2Department of Physics, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan

  • *suwamaro@phys.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp

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Issue

Vol. 105, Iss. 17 — 1 May 2022

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