Bridging frustrated-spin-chain and spin-ladder physics: quasi-one-dimensional magnetism of BiCu2PO6

TL;DR

This paper models the quasi-one-dimensional magnet BiCu2PO6 as a frustrated two-leg spin ladder, combining experimental measurements and advanced numerical techniques to reveal its magnetic properties and excitation spectrum.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed microscopic model of BiCu2PO6, integrating band structure calculations, susceptibility, and magnetization data with ED and DMRG, highlighting the role of frustration and strong rung coupling.

Findings

The system is in the strong rung coupling regime.

Presence of a triplon branch with an incommensurate minimum.

Estimated spin gap of 32 K and potential for complex magnetic phases.

Abstract

We derive and investigate the microscopic model of the quantum magnet BiCu2PO6 using band structure calculations, magnetic susceptibility and high-field magnetization measurements, as well as ED and DMRG techniques. The resulting quasi-one-dimensional spin model is a two-leg AFM ladder with frustrating next-nearest-neighbor couplings along the legs. The individual couplings are estimated from band structure calculations and by fitting the magnetic susceptibility with theoretical predictions, obtained using ED. The nearest-neighbor leg coupling J1, the rung coupling J4, and one of the next-nearest-neighbor couplings J2 amount to 120-150 K, while the second next-nearest-neighbor coupling is J2'~J2/2. The spin ladders do not match the structural chains, and although the next-nearest-neighbor interactions J2 and J2' have very similar superexchange pathways, they differ substantially in magnitude due to a tiny difference in the O-O distances and in the arrangement of non-magnetic PO4 tetrahedra. An extensive ED study of the proposed model provides the low-energy excitation spectrum and shows that the system is in the strong rung coupling regime. The strong frustration by the next-nearest-neighbor couplings leads to a triplon branch with an incommensurate minimum. This is further corroborated by a strong-coupling expansion up to second order in the inter-rung coupling. Based on high-field magnetization measurements, we estimate the spin gap of 32 K and suggest the likely presence of antisymmetric DM anisotropy and inter-ladder coupling J3. We also provide a tentative description of the physics of BiCu2PO6 in magnetic field, in the light of the low-energy excitation spectra and numerical calculations based on ED and DMRG. In particular, we raise the possibility for a rich interplay between one- and two-component Luttinger liquid phases and a magnetization plateau at 1/2 of the saturation value.