Impurity-induced frustration in correlated oxides

TL;DR

This paper shows that impurities in correlated oxides can induce frustration among spins, explaining experimental discrepancies and suggesting a common mechanism in such materials.

Contribution

It reveals that spinless impurities can induce frustration in non-frustrated antiferromagnets, a novel insight supported by analytic, quantum Monte Carlo, and experimental data.

Findings

Impurities induce significant frustration among surrounding spins.

Analytic and quantum Monte Carlo results agree with experiments.

The mechanism is likely applicable to other correlated oxides.

Abstract

Using the example of Zn-doped La2CuO4, we demonstrate that a spinless impurity doped into a non-frustrated antiferromagnet can induce substantial frustrating interactions among the spins surrounding it. This counterintuitive result is the key to resolving discrepancies between experimental data and earlier theories. Analytic and quantum Monte Carlo studies of the impurity-induced frustration are in a close accord with each other and experiments. The mechanism proposed here should be common to other correlated oxides as well.