Hidden order in spin-liquid Gd₃Ga₅O₁₂
Joseph A M Paddison1, Henrik Jacobsen2, Oleg A Petrenko3
1Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford, Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QR, UK. ISIS Facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Didcot, Oxfordshire OX11 0QX, UK. School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA.
Abstract:
Frustrated magnetic materials are promising candidates for new states of matter because lattice geometry suppresses conventional magnetic dipole order, potentially allowing "hidden" order to emerge in its place. A model of a hidden-order state at the atomic scale is difficult to deduce because microscopic probes are not directly sensitive to hidden order. Here, we develop such a model of the spin-liquid state in the canonical frustrated magnet gadolinium gallium garnet (Gd3Ga5O12). We show that this state exhibits a long-range hidden order in which multipoles are formed from 10-spin loops. The order is a consequence of the interplay between antiferromagnetic spin correlations and local magnetic anisotropy, which allows it to be indirectly observed in neutron-scattering experiments.
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