TY - JOUR
T1 - Possible quadrupolar nematic phase in the frustrated spin chain LiCuSbO4
T2 - An NMR investigation
AU - Bosiočić, M.
AU - Bert, F.
AU - Dutton, S. E.
AU - Cava, R. J.
AU - Baker, P. J.
AU - PoŽek, M.
AU - Mendels, P.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ), Grant No. IP-11-2013-2729, the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche under “SPINLIQ” Grant No.ANR-12-BS04-0021, the Université Paris-Sud under a “PMP” MRM grant, and the Région Ile-de-France under a “MAGMAT” SESAME grant. The authors thank Ivica Živković for complementary measurements and Jeffrey Quilliam for useful discussions.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 American Physical Society.
PY - 2017/12/20
Y1 - 2017/12/20
N2 - The frustrated one-dimensional quantum magnet LiCuSbO4 is a rare realization of the J1-J2 spin chain model with an easily accessible saturation field, formerly estimated at 12 T. Exotic multipolar nematic phases were theoretically predicted in such compounds just below the saturation field, but without unambiguous experimental observation so far. In this paper we present extensive experimental research on the compound in a wide temperature (30 mK to 300 K) and field (0-13.3 T) range by muon spin rotation (μSR), Li7 nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and magnetic susceptibility (SQUID). μSR experiments in zero magnetic field demonstrate the absence of long-range 3D ordering down to 30 mK. Together with former heat capacity data [Dutton, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 187206 (2012)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.108.187206], magnetic susceptibility measurements suggest a short-range-correlated vector chiral phase in the field range 0-4 T. At the intermediate-field values (5-12 T), the system enters a 3D-ordered spin density wave phase with 0.75μB per copper site at lowest temperatures (125 mK), estimated by NMR. At still higher field, the magnetization is found to be saturated above 13 T where the spin lattice T1-1 relaxation reveals a spin gap estimated at 3.2(2) K. We narrow down the possibility of observing a multipolar nematic phase to the range 12.5-13 T.
AB - The frustrated one-dimensional quantum magnet LiCuSbO4 is a rare realization of the J1-J2 spin chain model with an easily accessible saturation field, formerly estimated at 12 T. Exotic multipolar nematic phases were theoretically predicted in such compounds just below the saturation field, but without unambiguous experimental observation so far. In this paper we present extensive experimental research on the compound in a wide temperature (30 mK to 300 K) and field (0-13.3 T) range by muon spin rotation (μSR), Li7 nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and magnetic susceptibility (SQUID). μSR experiments in zero magnetic field demonstrate the absence of long-range 3D ordering down to 30 mK. Together with former heat capacity data [Dutton, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 187206 (2012)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.108.187206], magnetic susceptibility measurements suggest a short-range-correlated vector chiral phase in the field range 0-4 T. At the intermediate-field values (5-12 T), the system enters a 3D-ordered spin density wave phase with 0.75μB per copper site at lowest temperatures (125 mK), estimated by NMR. At still higher field, the magnetization is found to be saturated above 13 T where the spin lattice T1-1 relaxation reveals a spin gap estimated at 3.2(2) K. We narrow down the possibility of observing a multipolar nematic phase to the range 12.5-13 T.
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U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevB.96.224424
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevB.96.224424
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85039428512
SN - 2469-9950
VL - 96
JO - Physical Review B
JF - Physical Review B
IS - 22
M1 - 224424
ER -