Chain-based order and quantum spin liquids in dipolar spin ice

P. A. McClarty, O. Sikora, R. Moessner, K. Penc, F. Pollmann, and N. Shannon
Phys. Rev. B 92, 094418 – Published 11 September 2015
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Abstract

Recent experiments on the spin-ice material Dy2Ti2O7 suggest that the Pauling “ice entropy,” characteristic of its classical Coulombic spin-liquid state, may be lost at low temperatures [Pomaranski et al., Nat. Phys. 9, 353 (2013)]. However, despite nearly two decades of intensive study, the nature of the equilibrium ground state of spin ice remains uncertain. Here we explore how long-range dipolar interactions D, short-range exchange interactions, and quantum fluctuations combine to determine the ground state of dipolar spin ice. We identify the organizational principle that ordered ground states are selected from a set of “chain states” in which dipolar interactions are exponentially screened. Using both quantum and classical Monte Carlo simulation, we establish phase diagrams as a function of quantum tunneling g and temperature T, and find that only a very small gcD is needed to stabilize a quantum spin liquid ground state. We discuss the implications of these results for Dy2Ti2O7.

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  • Received 20 September 2014
  • Revised 29 July 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.92.094418

©2015 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

P. A. McClarty1,2, O. Sikora3,4,5, R. Moessner2, K. Penc6, F. Pollmann2, and N. Shannon4,5

  • 1ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory, Harwell Campus, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
  • 2Max-Planck-Institut für Physik komplexer Systeme, 01187 Dresden, Germany
  • 3Department of Physics, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10607, Taiwan
  • 4Okinawa Institute for Science and Technology, 1919-1 Tancha, Onna-son, Kunigami, Okinawa 904-0495, Japan
  • 5H. H. Wills Physics Laboratory, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TL, United Kingdom
  • 6Institute for Solid State Physics and Optics, Wigner Research Centre for Physics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, H-1525 Budapest, POB 49, Hungary

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Issue

Vol. 92, Iss. 9 — 1 September 2015

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