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  • Letter
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Magnetization process and ordering of the S=12 pyrochlore Heisenberg antiferromagnet in a magnetic field

Imre Hagymási1,2,*, Robin Schäfer1,†, Roderich Moessner1,‡, and David J. Luitz1,§

  • 1Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Noethnitzer Strasse 38, 01187 Dresden, Germany
  • 2Strongly Correlated Systems “Lendület” Research Group, Institute for Solid State Physics and Optics, Wigner Research Centre for Physics, P.O. Box 49, H-1525 Budapest, Hungary

  • *hagymasi@pks.mpg.de
  • †schaefer@pks.mpg.de
  • ‡moessner@pks.mpg.de
  • §dluitz@pks.mpg.de
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Phys. Rev. B 106, L060411 – Published 31 August, 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.106.L060411

Abstract

We study the S=12 pyrochlore Heisenberg antiferromagnet in a magnetic field. Using large-scale density-matrix renormalization group calculations for clusters with up to 128 spins, we find indications of a finite triplet gap, causing a threshold field to nonzero magnetization in the magnetization curve. We obtain a robust saturation field consistent with a magnon crystal, although the corresponding 5/6 magnetization plateau is very slim and possibly unstable. Most remarkably, there is a pronounced and apparently robust 1/2 magnetization plateau where the ground state breaks the rotational symmetry of the lattice, exhibiting oppositely polarized spins on alternating kagome and triangular planes. Reminiscent of the kagome ice plateau of the pyrochlore Ising antiferromagnet known as spin ice, it arises via a much more subtle “quantum order by disorder” mechanism.

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Phys. Rev. B 106, L060411– Published 31 August, 2022
  • Received 6 August 2021
  • Revised 11 July 2022
  • Accepted 18 July 2022
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. Open access publication funded by the Max Planck Society.

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