1. Helical Spin Dynamics in Commensurate Magnets: a Study on Brochantite, Cu$_4$SO$_4$(OH)$_6$
- Author
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Nikitin, S. E., Xie, Tao, Gazizulina, A., Ouladdiaf, B., Velamazán, J. A. Rodríguez, Díaz-Ortega, I. ~F., Nojiri, H., Anovitz, L. M., Santos, A. M. dos, Prokhnenko, O., and Podlesnyak, A.
- Subjects
Condensed Matter - Strongly Correlated Electrons ,Condensed Matter - Materials Science - Abstract
We report the direct observation of a commensurate-ordered antiferromagnetic (AFM) state but incommensurate helical spin dynamics in the natural mineral brochantite Cu$_4$SO$_4$(OH)$_6$ through neutron diffraction and neutron spectroscopy measurements. Inelastic neutron scattering measurements reveal magnon-like excitations with considerable dispersion along the c-axis and almost flat branches in other principal directions, indicating the strong one-dimensional character of the magnetic correlations. We experimentally observe the effect of the uniform Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction, which elevates the degeneracy of the spin-wave modes shifting them in opposite directions in reciprocal space. The system has a commensurate AFM ground state, stabilized by the anisotropic symmetric Heisenberg exchange interactions, and quasi-one-dimensional chiral spin dynamics due to the antisymmetric DM interaction. Employing linear spin-wave theory, we were able to construct an effective Heisenberg Hamiltonian. We quantify both the symmetric exchange parameters and the DM vector components in Cu$_4$SO$_4$(OH)$_6$ and determine the mechanism of the magnetic frustration. Our work provides detailed insights into the complex dynamics of the spin chain in the presence of uniform DM interaction., Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures
- Published
- 2024