Abstract
We study magnetic order in the Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the checkerboard lattice, a two-dimensional version of the pyrochlore network with strong geometric frustration. By employing the semiclassical expansion we find that quantum fluctuations of spins induce a long-range order that breaks the fourfold rotational symmetry of the lattice. The ordered phase is a valence-bond crystal. We discuss similarities and differences with the extreme quantum case and find a useful phenomenology to describe the bond-ordered phases.
- Received 27 January 2003
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.68.144422
©2003 American Physical Society