Scaling and data collapse from local moments in frustrated disordered quantum spin systems

Itamar Kimchi (), John P. Sheckelton, Tyrel M. McQueen and Patrick A. Lee
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Itamar Kimchi: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
John P. Sheckelton: The Johns Hopkins University
Tyrel M. McQueen: The Johns Hopkins University
Patrick A. Lee: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-5

Abstract: Abstract Recently measurements on various spin–1/2 quantum magnets such as H3LiIr2O6, LiZn2Mo3O8, ZnCu3(OH)6Cl2 and 1T-TaS2—all described by magnetic frustration and quenched disorder but with no other common relation—nevertheless showed apparently universal scaling features at low temperature. In particular the heat capacity C[H, T] in temperature T and magnetic field H exhibits T/H data collapse reminiscent of scaling near a critical point. Here we propose a theory for this scaling collapse based on an emergent random-singlet regime extended to include spin-orbit coupling and antisymmetric Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interactions. We derive the scaling C[H, T]/T ~ H−γFq[T/H] with Fq[x] = xq at small x, with q ∈ {0, 1, 2} an integer exponent whose value depends on spatial symmetries. The agreement with experiments indicates that a fraction of spins form random valence bonds and that these are surrounded by a quantum paramagnetic phase. We also discuss distinct scaling for magnetization with a q-dependent subdominant term enforced by Maxwell’s relations.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-06800-2

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