Neutron Scattering Study of the Field-Dependent Ground State and the Spin Dynamics in Spin-One-Half NH4CuCl3

Ch. Rüegg, M. Oettli, J. Schefer, O. Zaharko, A. Furrer, H. Tanaka, K. W. Krämer, H.-U. Güdel, P. Vorderwisch, K. Habicht, T. Polinski, and M. Meissner
Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 037207 – Published 16 July 2004

Abstract

Elastic and inelastic neutron scattering experiments have been performed on the dimer spin system NH4CuCl3, which shows plateaus in the magnetization curve at m=1/4 and m=3/4 of the saturation value. Two structural phase transitions at T1156K and at T2=70K lead to a doubling of the crystallographic unit cell along the b direction and as a consequence a segregation into different dimer subsystems. Long-range magnetic ordering is reported below TN=1.3K. The magnetic field dependence of the excitation spectrum identifies successive quantum phase transitions of the dimer subsystems as the driving mechanism for the unconventional magnetization process in agreement with a recent theoretical model.

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  • Received 27 April 2004

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.93.037207

©2004 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Ch. Rüegg1,*, M. Oettli1, J. Schefer1, O. Zaharko1, A. Furrer1, H. Tanaka2, K. W. Krämer3, H.-U. Güdel3, P. Vorderwisch4, K. Habicht4,5, T. Polinski4, and M. Meissner4

  • 1Laboratory for Neutron Scattering, ETH Zurich and Paul Scherrer Institute, 5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland
  • 2Department of Physics, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 152-8551 Tokyo, Japan
  • 3Department for Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Berne, 3000 Bern 9, Switzerland
  • 4BENSC, Hahn-Meitner Institute, 14109 Berlin, Germany
  • 5Institute of Solid State Physics, Technical University of Darmstadt, 64289 Darmstadt, Germany

  • *Electronic address: christian.rueegg@psi.ch

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Vol. 93, Iss. 3 — 16 July 2004

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