B4: Magnetic resonance spectroscopy on quantum spin liquids and Weyl semimetals
Norbert Büttgen, Hans-Albrecht Krug von Nidda
Electron spin resonance and nuclear magnetic resonance serve as site selective probes of the dynamic susceptibility in constrained quantum matter. In triangular and Kitaev magnets these techniques are applied in search for signatures of fractionalized excitations and entanglement characteristic of quantum-spin liquids. In magnetic topological semimetals anomalies in the electronic density of states at the Fermi level and their variation with magnetic field can be resolved, complementing spectroscopic studies in other projects in revealing information about band topology.
Publications
2025 |
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Nandi, S.; Das, R.; Mahapatra, S.; Sichelschmidt, J.; Hemmida, M.; von Nidda, H. -A. Krug; Schuller, M.; Büttgen, N.; Wilkinson, J.; Saravanan, M. P.; Dasgupta, I.; Mahajan, A. V. Novel Quantum Spin Liquid states in the S = 1/2 three-dimensional compound Y3Cu2Sb3O14 Unpublished (2025), arXiv:2509.15835. @unpublished{nandi_novel_2025, The three-dimensional S=1/2 system Y3Cu2Sb3O14 consists of two inequivalent Cu2+ ions, each forming edge shared triangular lattices. Our magnetic susceptibility chi(T)=M/H , specific heat C_p(T), Y nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), muon spin relaxation (µSR), and electron spin resonance (ESR) measurements on this system confirm the absence of any long-range magnetic ordering and the persistence of spin dynamics down to 0.077 K. From ^89Y NMR we find evidence of a transition at about 120 K which we suggest to arise from a fraction of the spins condensing into a singlet (a valence bond solid VBS or a quantum spin liquid QSL) state. A plateau in the muon relaxation rate is observed between 60 K and 10 K (signifying the VBS/QSL state from a fraction of the spins) followed by an increase and another plateau below about 1 K (presumably signifying the VBS/QSL state from all the spins). Our density functional theory calculations find a dominant antiferromagnetic interaction along the body diagonal with inequivalent Cu(1) and Cu(2) ions alternately occupying the corners of the cube. All other near neighbour interactions between the Cu ions are also found to be antiferromagnetic and are thought to drive the frustration. | ![]() |
Nandi, S.; Jawale, M.; Bachhar, S.; Kumar, Rahul; Schuller, M.; Bag, R.; Wilkinson, J.; Sichelschmidt, J.; Sundaresan, A.; Haravifard, S.; Büttgen, N.; Mahajan, A. V. (2025), arXiv.2503.10290. @unpublished{nandi_observation_2025, Spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnetic frustrated spin chain systems display exotic ground states with unconventional excitations and distinct quantum phase transitions as the ratio of next-nearest-neighbor to nearest-neighbor coupling is tuned. We present a comprehensive investigation of the structural, magnetic, and thermodynamics properties of the spin-1/2 compound, Cu(Ampy)ClBr (Ampy= C6H8N2 = 2-(Aminomethyl)pyridine) via x-ray diffraction, magnetization, specific heat, 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), electron spin resonance (ESR), and muon spin relaxation (muSR) techniques. The crystal structure features an anisotropic triangular chain lattice of magnetic Cu2+ ions. Our bulk and local probe experiments detect neither long-range magnetic ordering nor spin freezing down to 0.06 K despite the presence of moderate antiferromagnetic interaction between Cu2+ spins as reflected by a Curie-Weiss temperature of about -9 K from the bulk susceptibility data. A broad maximum is observed at about 9 K in magnetic susceptibility and specific heat data, indicating the onset of short-range spin correlations. At low temperatures, the zero-field magnetic specific heat and the 1H NMR spin-lattice relaxation rate follow an exponential temperature dependence, indicating the presence of gapped magnetic excitations. Furthermore, persistent spin dynamics down to 0.088 K observed by zero-field muSR evidences lack of any static magnetism. We attribute these experimental results to the stabilization of a dimer-singlet phase in the presence of a next-near neighbor interaction and of a randomness in the exchange coupling driven by Cl/Br mixing. | ![]() |
2024 |
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Hemmida, M.; Masell, J.; Karube, K.; Ehlers, D.; von Nidda, H. -A. Krug; Tsurkan, V.; Tokura, Y.; Taguchi, Y.; Kézsmárki, I. Role of magnetic anisotropy in the antiskyrmion-host schreibersite magnets Journal Article Phys. Rev. B 110, 054416 (2024). @article{hemmida_role_2024, | ![]() |
Büttgen, N.; von Nidda, H. -A. Krug Magnetic resonance in quantum spin chains with competing exchange interactions Journal Article J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 57, 313001 (2024). @article{buttgen_magnetic_2024, Based on a previous review on magnetic resonance in quantum spin chains (Krug von Nidda et al 2010 Eur. Phys. J. Spec. Top. 180 161–89) we report on further development in this field with special focus on transition–metal oxides and halogenides consisting of quasi one–dimensional spin systems, where both intra–and inter–chain exchange interaction may give rise to frustration effects and higher–order anisotropic exchange contributions like the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction become decisive for the formation of the magnetic ground state. Selected examples show how NMR and ESR contribute valuable information on the magnetic phases and exchange interactions involved: LiCuVO4 with competing nearest neighbour and next–nearest neighbour intra–chain exchange, LiCu2O2 with complex zig–zag chains, and Cs2CuCl4 where the chains form a triangular lattice with the inter–chain interaction weaker but of the same order of magnitude than the intra–chain interaction. The so called paper–chain compound Ba3Cu3In4O12, where each successive pair of CuO4 plaquettes is rotated by 90° with respect to its predecessor along the c–direction like in a paper–chain, provides an interesting topology of frustrated intra–chain exchange interactions. Finally, a few dimer systems are considered. | ![]() |
Hirschberger, M.; Szigeti, B. G.; Hemmida, M.; Hirschmann, M. M.; Esser, S.; Ohsumi, H.; Tanaka, Y.; Spitz, L.; Gao, S.; Kolincio, K. K.; Sagayama, H.; Nakao, H.; Yamasaki, Y.; Forró, L.; von Nidda, H. -A. Krug; Kézsmárki, I.; Arima, T.; Tokura, Y. Lattice-commensurate skyrmion texture in a centrosymmetric breathing kagome magnet Journal Article npj Quantum Mater. 9, 45 (2024). @article{hirschberger_lattice-commensurate_2024, Skyrmion lattices (SkL) in centrosymmetric materials typically have a magnetic period on the nanometer-scale, so that the coupling between magnetic superstructures and the underlying crystal lattice cannot be neglected. We reveal the commensurate locking of a SkL to the atomic lattice in Gd3Ru4Al12 via high-resolution resonant elastic x-ray scattering (REXS). Weak easy-plane magnetic anisotropy, demonstrated here by a combination of ferromagnetic resonance and REXS, penalizes placing a skyrmion core on a site of the atomic lattice. Under these conditions, a commensurate SkL, locked to the crystal lattice, is stable at finite temperatures – but gives way to a competing incommensurate ground state upon cooling. We discuss the role of Umklapp-terms in the Hamiltonian for the formation of this lattice-locked state, its magnetic space group, and the role of slight discommensurations, or (line) defects in the magnetic texture. We also contrast our findings with the case of SkLs in noncentrosymmetric material platforms. | ![]() |
2023 |
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Tóth, B.; Amelin, K.; Rõõm, T.; Nagel, U.; Bauernfeind, A.; Tsurkan, V.; Prodan, L.; von Nidda, H. -A. Krug; Scheffler, M.; Kézsmárki, I.; others, Broadband magnetic resonance spectroscopy in MnSc2S4 Journal Article Sci. Rep. 13, 11069 (2023). @article{toth_broadband_2023, Recent neutron scattering experiments suggested that frustrated magnetic interactions give rise to antiferromagnetic spiral and fractional skyrmion lattice phases in MnSc2S4. Here, to trace the signatures of these modulated phases, we studied the spin excitations of MnSc2S4 by THz spectroscopy at 300 mK and in magnetic fields up to 12 T and by broadband microwave spectroscopy at various temperatures up to 50 GHz. We found a single magnetic resonance with frequency linearly increasing in field. The small deviation of the Mn2+ ion g-factor from 2 | ![]() |