Crystallization of spin superlattices with pressure and field in the layered magnet SrCu₂(BO₃)₂

Creators: Haravifard, S.; Graf, D.; Feiguin, A. E.; Batista, C. D.; Lang, J. C.; Silevitch, D. M.; Srajer, G.; Gaulin, B. D.; Dabkowska, H. A.; Rosenbaum, T. F.

Abstract

An exact mapping between quantum spins and boson gases provides fresh approaches to the creation of quantum condensates and crystals. Here we report on magnetization measurements on the dimerized quantum magnet SrCu₂(BO₃)₂ at cryogenic temperatures and through a quantum-phase transition that demonstrate the emergence of fractionally filled bosonic crystals in mesoscopic patterns, specified by a sequence of magnetization plateaus. We apply tens of Teslas of magnetic field to tune the density of bosons and gigapascals of hydrostatic pressure to regulate the underlying interactions. Simulations help parse the balance between energy and geometry in the emergent spin superlattices. The magnetic crystallites are the end result of a progression from a direct product of singlet states in each short dimer at zero field to preferred filling fractions of spin-triplet bosons in each dimer at large magnetic field, enriching the known possibilities for collective states in both quantum spin and atomic systems.

Additional Information

© 2016 Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Received 17 June 2015. Accepted 16 May 2016. Published 20 June 2016. We are grateful to S.W. Tozer for help in acquiring the high-pressure TDO data. The work at the University of Chicago was supported by NSF grant no. DMR-1206519. This research used resources of the Advanced Photon Source, a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility operated by Argonne National Laboratory under contract no. NEAC02-06CH11357. The work at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory was supported by National Science Foundation Cooperative Agreement no. DMR-1157490, the State of Florida, and the U.S. Department of Energy. D.G. acknowledges support from the Department of Energy (DOE) NNSA DE-NA0001979. A.E.F. acknowledges support from NSF under grant DMR-1339564.

Attached Files

Published - ncomms11956.pdf

Supplemental Material - ncomms11956-s1.pdf

Files

ncomms11956-s1.pdf

Files (1.4 MB)

Name	Size	Download all
ncomms11956-s1.pdf md5:2053984bde5fe3790995f23671c03b4e	787.2 kB	Preview Download
ncomms11956.pdf md5:c8048d45db9dab5514f96b98508c2a45	588.7 kB	Preview Download

Additional details

	All versions	This version
Views	0	0
Downloads	0	0
Data volume	0 Bytes	0 Bytes