Magnetic Resonance in Collective Paramagnets with Gapped Excitation Spectrum

Some magnets due to particular geometry of the exchange bonds do not undergo transition to the conventional magnetically ordered state despite of the presence of significant exchange couplings. Instead, a collective paramagnetic state is formed. The later state can remain stable down to $T=0$ if the ground state of this magnet turns out to be nonmagnetic singlet separated from the excited triplet states by an energy gap. Low-temperature spin dynamics of the collective paramagnets with gapped excitations spectrum (or spin-gap magnets) can be described in terms of a dilute gas of the triplet excitations. Applied magnetic field can suppress the energy gap, resulting in the formation of the gapless spin-liquid state or even leading to the unusual phenomenon of field-induced antiferromagnetic order. Introduction of defects in the crystallographic structure of the spin-gap magnet can result either in the formation of multi-spin paramagnetic center or in the formation of randomly distributed modified exchange bonds in the crystal. This review includes results of electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy study of several representative quantum paramagnets with gapped excitations spectrum: quasy-two-dimensional magnet \phcc{}, quasy-one-dimensional magnets of "spin-tube" type \sul{} and "spin-ladder" type \dimpy{}. We will demonstrate that ESR absorption spectra reveal common features of these systems: ESR spectroscopy allows to observe and characterize fine structure if the triplet energy levels, to identify many-particles relaxation processes in the gas of triplet excitations and to observe collective spin-wave oscillations in the field induced antiferromagnetically ordered state, as well as to observe some individual features of the studied systems.
Comment: This text is an expanded author-translated version of the review prepared for the memorial issue of Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics dedicated to 100-year anniversary of A.S.~Borovik-Romanov (full memorial volume is available as JETP 131 No.1 (2020) [ZhETF 158 No.1 (2020)])