Kitaev-like honeycomb magnets: Global phase behavior and emergent effective models

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Authors

RUSNAČKO Juraj GOTFRYD Dorota CHALOUPKA Jiří

Year of publication 2019
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source Physical Review B
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Science

Citation
Web http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.99.064425
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.99.064425
Keywords frustrated magnetism; Kitaev model; quantum spin liquid
Description Compounds of transition metal ions with strong spin-orbit coupling recently attracted attention due to the possibility to host frustrated bond-dependent anisotropic magnetic interactions. In general, such interactions lead to complex phase diagrams that may include exotic phases, e.g., the Kitaev spin liquid. Here we report on our comprehensive analysis of the global phase diagram of the extended Kitaev-Heisenberg model relevant to honeycomb lattice compounds Na2IrO3 and alpha-RuCl3. We have utilized recently developed method based on spin coherent states that enabled us to resolve arbitrary spin patterns in the cluster ground states obtained by exact diagonalization. Global trends in the phase diagram are understood in combination with the analytical mappings of the Hamiltonian that uncover peculiar links to known models-Heisenberg, Ising, Kitaev, or compass models on the honeycomb lattice-or reveal entire manifolds of exact fluctuation-free ground states. Finally, our study can serve as a methodological example that can be applied to other spin models with complex bond-dependent non-Heisenberg interactions.
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