Abstract
Within a wide class of ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic systems, quantum tunneling of magnetization direction is spin-parity dependent: it vanishes for magnetic particles with half-integer spin, but is allowed for integer spin. A coherent-state path-integral calculation shows that this topological effect results from interference between tunneling paths.
- Received 27 July 1992
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.69.3232
©1992 American Physical Society