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Competing Ordering Modes in the Distorted Quantum Kagome Material Clinoatacamite Cu_{2}Cl(OH)_{3}
L Stödter1,2, C Kastner1, H O Jeschke3
1Technische Universität Braunschweig, Institut für Physik der Kondensierten Materie, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany.
Abstract:
We have studied the magnetic properties of clinoatacamite Cu_{2}Cl(OH)_{3}, the parent compound of the quantum spin liquid candidate herbertsmithite and a long-standing puzzle among frustrated quantum magnets. As we reveal using density-functional theory, clinoatacamite belongs to the class of distorted kagome antiferromagnets with the kagome plane being embedded into a low-symmetry crystal structure. By means of thermodynamic measurements, muon spin rotation and relaxation, as well as neutron diffraction on single crystals, we find in zero magnetic field complex behavior below T_{I}=18.1 K which unfolds in three temperature regions I-III. We propose this complexity in multicritical clinoatacamite to arise from the competition of antiferromagnetic ordering modes from the underconstrained manifold of modes, which can lead to a metamagnetic texture in zero field.
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