Tuning the spin dynamics of kagome systems

TL;DR

This paper compares the excitation spectra of two kagome lattice compounds, revealing how minor structural changes significantly impact their phonon spectra and magnetic properties, advancing understanding of spin liquids.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of volborthite and vesignieite, highlighting the influence of lattice distortions on spin dynamics and excitation spectra in kagome systems.

Findings

Small structural modifications greatly affect phonon spectra.

Lattice distortions influence magnetic exchange and fluctuations.

Differences observed between volborthite and vesignieite.

Abstract

Despite the conceptional importance of realizing spin liquids in solid states only few compounds are known. On the other side the effect of lattice distortions and anisotropies on the magnetic exchange topology and the fluctuation spectrum are an interesting problem. We compare the excitation spectra of the two s=1/2 kagome lattice compounds volborthite and vesignieite using Raman scattering. We demonstrate that even small modifications of the crystal structure may have a huge effect on the phonon spectrum and low temperature properties.