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Updated: Dec 19, 2025

Synthesis and Microdiffraction at Extreme Pressures and Temperatures
Published on: October 7, 2013
Quantum Phases of SrCu_{2}(BO_{3})_{2} from High-Pressure Thermodynamics
Jing Guo1, Guangyu Sun1,2, Bowen Zhao3
1Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics and Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
Abstract:
We report heat capacity measurements of SrCu_{2}(BO_{3})_{2} under high pressure along with simulations of relevant quantum spin models and map out the (P,T) phase diagram of the material. We find a first-order quantum phase transition between the low-pressure quantum dimer paramagnet and a phase with signatures of a plaquette-singlet state below T=2 K. At higher pressures, we observe a transition into a previously unknown antiferromagnetic state below 4 K. Our findings can be explained within the two-dimensional Shastry-Sutherland quantum spin model supplemented by weak interlayer couplings. The possibility to tune SrCu_{2}(BO_{3})_{2} between the plaquette-singlet and antiferromagnetic states opens opportunities for experimental tests of quantum field theories and lattice models involving fractionalized excitations, emergent symmetries, and gauge fluctuations.
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