arXiv subjects

Shigeki Onoda

Publications and source records attributed to Shigeki Onoda.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2020

Roles of easy-plane and easy-axis XXZ anisotropy and bond alternation on a frustrated ferromagnetic spin-$1/2$ chain

The spin-$1/2$ Heisenberg chain with a ferromagnetic first-neighbor exchange coupling $J_1$ and an antiferromagnetic second-neighbor $J_2$ has a Haldane dimer ground state with an extremely small spin gap. Thus, the ground state is readily altered by perturbations. Here, we investigate the effects of XXZ exchange magnetic anisotropy of both the easy-axis and easy-plane types and an alternation in $J_1$ on the ground state, the spin gap, and magnetic properties of the frustrated ferromagnetic spin-$1/2$ chain. It is found that there are two distinct dimerized spin-gap phases, in one of which the spin gap and the magnetic susceptibility are extremely small around the SU(2) symmetric case and in the other they are moderately large far away from the SU(2) symmetric case. A small alternation in the amplitude of $J_1$ rapidly shortens the pitch of spin correlations towards the four-spin periodicity, as in the limit of $J_1/J_2\to0$. These effects are not sufficient to quantitatively explain overall experimentally observed magnetic properties in the quasi-one-dimensional spin-gapped magnetoelectric cuprate Rb$_2$Cu$_2$Mo$_3$O$_{12}$ that exhibits ferroelectricity stabilized by a magnetic field. Our results are also relevant to Cs$_2$Cu$_2$Mo$_3$O$_{12}$, where the ferromagnetic intrachain and antiferromagnetic interchain order has recently been found, in a single chain level. We also reveal the nature of symmetry-protected topological phase transitions in the model by mapping onto effective spin-1 chain models.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2020

Emergent spin-$1$ Haldane gap and ferroelectricity in a frustrated spin-$1/2$ ladder

We report experimental and theoretical evidence that Rb$_2$Cu$_2$Mo$_3$O$_{12}$ has a nonmagnetic tetramer ground state of a two-leg ladder comprising antiferromagnetically coupled frustrated spin-$1/2$ chains and exhibits a Haldane spin gap of emergent spin-1 pairs. Three spin excitations split from the spin-1 triplet by a Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction are identified in inelastic neutron-scattering and electron spin resonance spectra. A tiny magnetic field generates ferroelectricity without closing the spin gap, indicating a novel class of ferroelectricity induced by a vector spin chirality order.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2019

Magnetic Monopole Supercurrent through a Quantum Spin Ice Tunnel Junction

Magnetic monopoles are hypothetical particles that may exist as quantized sources and sinks of the magnetic field. In materials, they may appear in an emergent quantum electrodynamics described by a U(1) lattice gauge theory. Particularly, quantum spin ice hosts monopoles as bosonic spinons coupled to emergent gauge fields in a U(1) quantum spin liquid, namely, a deconfined Coulomb phase. When monopoles are condensed to form a long-range order, monopoles and gauge fields are screened and confined. Here we show, however, that monopole supercurrent flows across a junction of two ferromagnets that are weakly linked through and placed on top of the U(1) QSL, when a gauge-invariant phase difference of spinons across the junction is generated by quenching or an applied electric voltage parallel to the junction. This novel phenomenon paves the way to a new paradigm of spinonics for a dissipationless control of magnetism.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2017

Quantum spin ice under a [111] magnetic field: from pyrochlore to kagomé

Quantum spin ice, modeled for magnetic rare-earth pyrochlores, has attracted great interest for hosting a U(1) quantum spin liquid, which involves spin-ice monopoles as gapped deconfined spinons, as well as gapless excitations analogous to photons. However, the global phase diagram under a [111] magnetic field remains open. Here we uncover by means of unbiased quantum Monte-Carlo simulations that a supersolid of monopoles, showing both a superfluidity and a partial ionization, intervenes the kagomé spin ice and a fully ionized monopole insulator, in contrast to classical spin ice where a direct discontinuous phase transition takes place. We also show that on cooling, kagomé spin ice evolves towards a valence bond solid similar to what appears in the associated kagomé lattice model [S. V. Isakov et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 147202 (2006)]. Possible relevance to experiments is discussed.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2016

First-principles design of the spinel iridate Ir2O4 for high-temperature quantum spin ice

Insulating magnetic rare-earth pyrochlores related to spin ice host emergent bosonic monopolar spinons, which obey a magnetic analogue of quantum electrodynamics and may open a route to a magnetic analogue of electronics. However, the energy scales of the interactions among rare-earth moments are so low as 1 K that the possible quantum coherence can only be achieved at a sub-Kelvin. Here, we desgin high-temperature quantum spin ice materials from first principles. It is shown that the A-site deintercalated spinel iridate Ir2O4, which has been experimentally grown as epitaxial thin films, is a promising candidate for quantum spin ice with a spin-ice-rule interaction of a few tens of meV. Controlling electronic structures of Ir2O4 through substrates, it is possible to tune magnetic interactions so that a magnetic Coulomb liquid persists at high temperatures.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2015

Numerical evidence of quantum melting of spin ice: quantum-classical crossover

Unbiased quantum Monte-Carlo simulations are performed on the nearest-neighbor spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ pyrochlore XXZ model with an antiferromagnetic longitudinal and a weak ferromagnetic transverse exchange couplings, $J$ and $J_\perp$. The specific heat exhibits a broad peak at $T_{\mathrm{CSI}}\sim0.2J$ associated with a crossover to a classical Coulomb liquid regime showing a suppressed spin-ice monopole density, a broadened pinch-point singularity, and the Pauling entropy for $|J_\perp|\ll J$, as in classical spin ice. On further cooling, the entropy restarts decaying for $J_\perp>J_{\perp c}\sim-0.104J$, producing another broad specific heat peak for a crossover to a bosonic quantum Coulomb liquid, where the spin correlation contains both photon and quantum spin-ice monopole contributions. With negatively increasing $J_\perp$ across $J_{\perp c}$, a first-order thermal phase transition occurs from the quantum Coulomb liquid to an XY ferromagnet. Relevance to magnetic rare-earth pyrochlore oxides is discussed.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2015

First-principles study on cubic pyrochlore iridates Y2Ir2O7 and Pr2Ir2O7

Fully relativistic first-principles electronic structure calculations based on a noncollinear local spin density approximation (LSDA) are performed for pyrochlore iridates Y$_2$Ir$_2$O$_7$ and Pr$_2$Ir$_2$O$_7$. The all-in, all-out antiferromagnetic (AF) order is stablized by the on-site Coulomb repulsion $U>U_c$ in the LSDA+$U$ scheme, with $U_c\sim1.1$~eV and 1.3~eV for Y$_2$Ir$_2$O$_7$ and Pr$_2$Ir$_2$O$_7$, respectively. AF semimetals with and without Weyl points and then a topologically trivial AF insulator successively appear with further increasing $U$. For $U=1.3$~eV, Y$_2$Ir$_2$O$_7$ is a topologically trivial narrow-gap AF insulator having an ordered local magnetic moment $\sim0.5μ_B$/Ir, while Pr$_2$Ir$_2$O$_7$ is barely a paramagnetic semimetal with electron and hole concentrations of $0.016$/Ir, in overall agreements with experiments. With decreasing oxygen position parameter $x$ describing the trigonal compression of IrO$_6$ octahedra, Pr$_2$Ir$_2$O$_7$ is driven through a non-Fermi-liquid semimetal having only an isolated Fermi point of $Γ_8^+$, showing a quadratic band touching, to a $Z_2$ topological insulator.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2014

Symmetry-protected topological phases and transition in a frustrated spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ XXZ chain

Frustrated spin-$1/2$ XXZ zigzag chains relevant to Rb$_2$Cu$_2$Mo$_3$O$_{12}$ are revisited in the light of symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phases. Using a density-matrix renormalization group method for infinite systems, we identify projective representations for four distinct time-reversal invariant SPT phases; two parity-symmetric dimer phases near the Heisenberg and XX limits and two parity-broken vector-chiral (VC) dimer phases in between. A small bond alternation in the nearest-neighbor ferromagnetic exchange coupling induces a direct SPT transition between the two distinct VC dimer phases. It is also found numerically that two Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transitions from the gapless to the two distinct gapped VC phases meet each other at a Gaussian criticality of the same Tomonaga-Luttinger parameter value as in the SU(2)-symmetric case.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2014

Static magnetic moments revealed by muon spin relaxation and thermodynamic measurements in quantum spin ice Yb$_2$Ti$_2$O$_7$

We present muon spin relaxation ($μ$SR) and specific-heat versus temperature $C(T)$ measurements on polycrystalline and single-crystal samples of the pyrochlore magnet Yb$_2$Ti$_2$O$_7$. $C(T)$ exhibits a sharp peak at a $T_\mathrm{C}$ of 0.21 and 0.26~K for the single-crystal and polycrystalline samples respectively. For both samples, the magnetic entropy released between 50~mK and 30~K amounts to $R\ln2$ per Yb. At temperatures below $T_\mathrm{C}$ we observe a steep drop in the asymmetry of the zero-field $μ$SR time spectra at short time scales, as well as a decoupling of the muon spins from the internal field in longitudinal magnetic fields of $\leq0.25$~T for both the polycrystalline and single-crystal samples. These muon data are indicative of static magnetic moments. Our results are consistent with the onset of long-range magnetic order in both forms of Yb$_2$Ti$_2$O$_7$.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2013

Vector-spin-chirality order in a dimerized frustrated spin-1/2 chain

A frustrated spin-$1/2$ XXZ chain model comprising a ferromagnetic nearest-neighbor coupling with the bond alternation, $J_1(1\pmδ)<0$, and an antiferromagnetic second-neighbor exchange coupling $J_2>0$ is studied at zero and weak magnetic fields by means of density matrix renormalization group calculations of order parameters, correlation functions and the entanglement entropy as well as an Abelian bosonization analysis. At zero magnetic field, the bond alternation $δ>0$ suppresses the gapless phase characterized by a vector-chiral (VC) long-range order (LRO) and a quasi-LRO of an incommensurate spin spiral, whereas this phase occupies a large region in the space of $J_1/J_2$ and the easy-plane exchange anisotropy for $δ=0$ [S. Furukawa \textit{et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{105}, 257205 (2010)]. Then, four gapped phases are found to appear as the exchange anisotropy varies from the SU(2)-symmetric case to the U(1)-symmetric case; the Haldane dimer (D$_+$) phase with the same sign of the $x,y$- and $z$-component dimer order parameters, two VC dimer (VCD$_+$/VCD$_-$) phases with the sign of the $z$-component dimer order parameter being unaltered/reversed, and the even-parity dimer (D$_-$) phase. At small magnetic fields, a field-induced ring-exchange interaction, which is proportional to a staggered scalar chirality and a magnetic flux penetrating the associated triangle, drives a transition from the D$_-$ phase into a VC-Neel-dimer (VCND) phase, but not from the D$_+$ phase. This VCND phase is stable up to the large magnetic field at which the Zeeman term closes the spin gap. A possible relevance to Rb$_2$Cu$_2$Mo$_3$O$_{12}$ is discussed.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2012

Ground-state phase diagram of a spin-1/2 frustrated ferromagnetic XXZ chain: Haldane dimer phase and gapped/gapless chiral phases

The ground-state phase diagram of a spin-1/2 XXZ chain with competing ferromagnetic nearest-neighbor (J_1<0) and antiferromagnetic second-neighbor (J_2>0) exchange couplings is studied by means of the infinite time evolving block decimation algorithm and effective field theories. For the SU(2)-symmetric (Heisenberg) case, we show that the nonmagnetic phase in the range -4<J_1/J_2<0 has a small but finite ferromagnetic dimer order. We argue that this spontaneous dimer order is associated with effective spin-1 degrees of freedom on dimerized bonds, which collectively form a valence bond solid state as in the spin-1 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain (the Haldane spin chain). We thus call this phase the Haldane dimer phase. With easy-plane anisotropy, the model exhibits a variety of phases including the vector chiral phase with gapless excitations and the even-parity dimer and Neel phases with gapped excitations, in addition to the Haldane dimer phase. Furthermore, we show the existence of gapped phases with coexisting orders in narrow regions that intervene between the gapless chiral phase and any one of Haldane dimer, even-parity dimer, and Neel phases. Possible implications for quasi-one-dimensional edge-sharing cuprates are discussed.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2012

Higgs transition from a magnetic Coulomb liquid to a ferromagnet in Yb_2Ti_2O_7

In a class of frustrated magnets known as spin ice, magnetic monopoles emerge as classical defects and interact via the magnetic Coulomb law. With quantum-mechanical interactions, these magnetic charges are carried by fractionalised bosonic quasi-particles, spinons, which can undergo Bose-Einstein condensation through a first-order transition via the Higgs mechanism. Here, we report evidence of a Higgs transition from a magnetic Coulomb liquid to a ferromagnet in single-crystal Yb2Ti2O7. Polarised neutron-scattering experiments show that the diffuse [111]-rod scattering and pinch-point features which develop on cooling are suddenly suppressed below T_C ~ 0.21 K, where magnetic Bragg peaks and a full depolarisation of the neutron spins are observed with thermal hysteresis, indicating a first-order ferromagnetic transition. Our results are explained on the basis of a quantum spin-ice model, whose high-temperature phase is effectively described as a magnetic Coulomb liquid, while the ground state shows a nearly collinear ferromagnetism with gapped spin excitations.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2012

Generic quantum spin ice

We consider possible exotic ground states of quantum spin ice as realized in rare earth pyrochlores. Prior work in Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 037202 introduced a gauge mean field theory (gMFT) to treat spin or pseudospin Hamiltonians for such systems, reformulated as a problem of bosonic spinons coupled to a U(1) gauge field. We extend gMFT to treat the most general, nearest neighbor exchange Hamiltonian, which contains a further exchange interaction, not considered previously. This term leads to interactions between spinons, and requires a significant extension of gMFT, which we provide. As an application, we focus especially on the non-Kramers materials Pr2TM2O7 (TM=Sn, Zr, Hf, and Ir), for which the additional term is especially important, but for which an Ising-planar exchange coupling discussed previously is forbidden by time-reversal symmetry. In this case, when the planar XY exchange is unfrustrated, we perform a full analysis and find three quantum ground states: a U(1) quantum spin liquid (QSL), an antiferro-quadrupolar ordered state and a non-coplanar ferro-quadrupolar ordered one. We also consider the case of frustrated XY exchange, and find that it favors a pi-flux QSL, with an emergent line degeneracy of low energy spinon excitations. This feature greatly enhances the stability of the QSL with respect to classical ordering.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2011

Competing phases in spin-1/2 J1-J2 chain with easy-plane anisotropy

We summarize our theoretical findings on the ground-state phase diagram of the spin-1/2 XXZ chain having competing nearest-neighbor (J1) and antiferromagnetic next-nearest-neighbor (J2) couplings. Our study is mainly concerned with the case of ferromagnetic J1, and the case of antiferromagnetic J1 is briefly reviewed for comparison. The phase diagram contains a rich variety of phases in the plane of J1/J2 versus the XXZ anisotropy Delta: vector-chiral phases, Néel phases, several dimer phases, and Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid phases. We discuss the vector-chiral order that appears for a remarkably wide parameter space, successive Néel-dimer phase transitions, and an emergent nonlocal string order in a narrow region of ferromagnetic J1 side.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2011

Dissipationless mechanism of skyrmion Hall current in double-exchange ferromagnets

We revisit a theory of skyrmion transport in ferromagnets. On a basis of an effective U(1) gauge theory for spin-chirality fluctuations in double-exchange ferromagnets, we derive an expression for the velocity of a skyrmion core driven by the dc electric field. We find that mutual feedback effects between conduction electrons and localized spins give rise to Chern-Simons terms, suggesting a dissipationless mechanism for the skyrmion Hall current. A conventional description of the current-induced skyrmion motion, appearing through the spin transfer torque and scattering events, is reproduced in a certain limit of our description, where the Chern-Simons terms are not fully incorporated. Our theory is applicable to not only metallic but also insulating systems, where the purely topological and dissipationless skyrmion Hall current can be induced in the presence of an energy gap.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2011

Quantum fluctuations in the effective pseudospin-1/2 model for magnetic pyrochlore oxides

The effective quantum pseudospin-1/2 model for interacting rare-earth magnetic moments, which are locally described with atomic doublets, is studied theoretically for magnetic pyrochlore oxides. It is derived microscopically for localized Pr^{3+} 4f moments in Pr_2TM_2O_7 (TM = Zr, Sn, Hf, and Ir) by starting from the atomic non-Kramers magnetic doublets and performing the strong-coupling perturbation expansion of the virtual electron transfer between the Pr 4f and O 2p electrons. The most generic form of the nearest-neighbor anisotropic superexchange pseudospin-1/2 Hamiltonian is also constructed from the symmetry properties, which is applicable to Kramers ions Nd^{3+}, Sm^{3+}, and Yb^{3+} potentially showing large quantum effects. The effective model is then studied by means of a classical mean-field theory and the exact diagonalization on a single tetrahedron and on a 16-site cluster. These calculations reveal appreciable quantum fluctuations leading to quantum phase transitions to a quadrupolar state as a melting of spin ice for the Pr^{3+} case. The model also shows a formation of cooperative quadrupole moment and pseudospin chirality on tetrahedrons. A sign of a singlet quantum spin ice is also found in a finite region in the space of coupling constants. The relevance to the experiments is discussed.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2011

Effective quantum pseudospin-1/2 model for Yb pyrochlore oxides

An effective quantum pseudospin-1/2 Hamiltonian for Yb_2TM_2O_7 (TM = Ti and Sn) is obtained in terms of the atomic Kramers ground doublet of the LS coupling and the crystalline electric field, which is almost described with J^z=\pm 1/2. It is calculated microscopically as the sum of Anderson's superexchange interaction and the magnetic dipole interaction. It is found that it shows a strong exchange anisotropy.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2010

Chiral order and electromagnetic dynamics in one-dimensional multiferroic cuprates

We show by unbiased numerical calculations that the ferromagnetic nearest-neighbor exchange interaction stabilizes a vector spin chiral order against the quantum fluctuation in a frustrated spin-1/2 chain relevant to multiferroic cuprates, LiCu2O2 and LiCuVO4. Our realistic semi-classical analyses for LiCu2O2 resolve controversies on the helical magnetic structure and unveil the pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone modes as the origin of experimentally observed electromagnons.

cond-mat.str-el↗