Heat capacity reveals the physics of a frustrated spin tube

Ivanov, N.B., Schnack, J., Schnalle, R., Richter, J., Kogerler, P., Newton, G., Cronin, L. , Oshima, Y. and Nojiri, H. (2010) Heat capacity reveals the physics of a frustrated spin tube. Physical Review Letters, 105(3), 037206. (doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.037206)

Abstract

We report on theoretical and experimental results concerning the low-temperature specific heat of the frustrated spin-tube material [(CuCl(2)tachH)(3)Cl]Cl-2 (tach denotes 1,3,5-triaminocyclohexane). This substance turns out to be an unusually perfect spin-tube system which allows to study the physics of quasione- dimensional antiferromagnetic structures in rather general terms. An analysis of the specific-heat data demonstrates that at low enough temperatures the system exhibits a Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid behavior corresponding to an effective spin-3/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain with short-range exchange interactions. On the other hand, around 2 K the composite spin structure of the chain is revealed through a Schottky-type peak in the specific heat. We argue that the dominating contribution to the peak originates from gapped magnon-type excitations related to the internal degrees of freedom of the rung spins.

• Item Type: Articles
• Keywords: ANTIFERROMAGNETIC UNIFORM BEHAVIOR HEISENBERG CHAIN LOW-TEMPERATURE NANOTUBES STATE SYSTEMS THERMODYNAMICS
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Cronin, Professor Lee
• Authors: Ivanov, N.B., Schnack, J., Schnalle, R., Richter, J., Kogerler, P., Newton, G., Cronin, L., Oshima, Y., and Nojiri, H.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Chemistry
• Journal Name: Physical Review Letters
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• ISSN: 0031-9007
• ISSN (Online): 1079-7114