Numerical study of the thermodynamics of clinoatacamite

TitleNumerical study of the thermodynamics of clinoatacamite
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2012
AuthorsKhatami, E., Helton J. S., and Rigol M.
JournalPhysical Review B
Volume85
Pagination064401
Abstract

We study the thermodynamic properties of the clinoatacamite compound, Cu2(OH)3Cl, by considering several approximate models. They include the Heisenberg model on (i) the uniform pyrochlore lattice, (ii) a very anisotropic pyrochlore lattice, and (iii) a kagome lattice weakly coupled to spins that sit on a triangular lattice. We utilize the exact diagonalization of small clusters with periodic boundary conditions and implement a numerical linked-cluster expansion approach for quantum lattice models with reduced symmetries, which allows us to solve model (iii) in the thermodynamic limit. We find a very good agreement between the experimental uniform susceptibility and the numerical results for models (ii) and (iii), which suggests a weak ferromagnetic coupling between the kagome and triangular layers in clinoatacamite. We also study thermodynamic properties in a geometrical transition between a planar pyrochlore lattice and the kagome lattice.

URLhttp://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevB.85.064401
DOI10.1103/PhysRevB.85.064401
arXiv.org

http://arxiv.org/abs/1102.0777