Realization of the anisotropic compass model on the diamond lattice of Cu2+ in CuAl2O4

Spin-orbit (SO) Mott insulators are regarded as a new paradigm of magnetic materials, whose properties are largely influenced by SO coupling and featured by highly anisotropic bond-dependent exchange interactions between the spin-orbital entangled Kramers doublets, as typically manifested in 5d irid...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review. B 2018-11, Vol.98 (20), p.201106(R)
Main Authors: Nikolaev, S A, Solovyev, I V, Ignatenko, A N, Irkhin, V Yu, Streltsov, S V
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anisotropy
Copper
Cuprates
Diamonds
Electronic structure
Exchanging
First principles
Insulators
Magnetic materials
Magnetic properties
Quantum theory
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Summary:Spin-orbit (SO) Mott insulators are regarded as a new paradigm of magnetic materials, whose properties are largely influenced by SO coupling and featured by highly anisotropic bond-dependent exchange interactions between the spin-orbital entangled Kramers doublets, as typically manifested in 5d iridates. Here, we propose that a very similar situation can be realized in cuprates when the Cu2+ ions reside in a tetrahedral environment, as in spinel compounds. Using first-principles electronic structure calculations, we construct a realistic model for the diamond lattice of the Cu2+ ions in CuAl2O4 and show that the magnetic properties of this compound are largely controlled by anisotropic compass-type exchange interactions that dramatically modify the magnetic ground state by lifting the spiral spin-liquid degeneracy and stabilizing a commensurate single-q spiral.
ISSN:2469-9950
2469-9969
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevB.98.201106