Research Highlight

Magnetization process of atacamite: a case of weakly coupled S=1/2 sawtooth chains

The beautiful copper mineral atacamite can be found in Chile and Mexico but also in Japans Hyogo prefecture. The spin-1/2 copper ions form a highly distored three-dimensional pyrochlore lattice. Density functional theory based energy mapping, however, clarifies that only two out of four “nearest neighbour” couplings are substantial and form one-dimensional Delta chains. An apparent one-half magnetization plateau could be mistaken for the well known quantum property of Delta chains. However, it turns out that J, J’ couplings in the anisotropic Delta chain realized in atacamite are in the plateau-less J’/J limit. The suprising explanation for the magnetization that nearly stalls around 1/2 Bohr magnetons is due to a tilting of the large effective moments formed by the Delta chains in the magnetic field. Subleading exchange interactions in 3D turn out to be responsible and explain the precise magnetization dynamics.

L. Heinze, H. O. Jeschke, I. I. Mazin, A. Metavitsiadis, M. Reehuis, R. Feyerherm, J.-U. Hoffmann, M. Bartkowiak, O. Prokhnenko, A. U. B. Wolter, X. Ding, V. Zapf, C. C. Moya, F. Weickert, M. Jaime, K. C. Rule, D. Menzel, R. Valentí, W. Brenig, S. Süllow

Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 207201 (2021) <https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.207201>

岡山大学 異分野基礎科学研究所/
理学部物理学科

Jeschke・大槻 研究室

〒700-8530 岡山市北区津島中三丁目1番1号

Jeschke-Otsuki group

Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Science /
Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Okayama University

3-1-1 Tsushimanaka, Kita-ku, Okayama 700-8530

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