Spin excitation spectrum of high-temperature cuprate superconductors from finite cluster simulations

TL;DR

This study uses finite cluster simulations of spin-1/2 systems to model the spin excitation spectra of high-temperature cuprate superconductors, capturing key experimental features like the spin gap and characteristic peaks.

Contribution

It demonstrates that finite cluster models can reproduce essential aspects of the experimental spin response in cuprates, highlighting the role of weakly coupled spin clusters.

Findings

Reproduced the spin gap and broad peak around 40-70 meV

Observed a sharp zero-frequency peak from ground-state multiplet transitions

Captured variability consistent with experimental phenomenology

Abstract

A cluster of spins $1/2$ of a finite size can be regarded as a basic building block of a spin texture in high-temperature cuprate superconductors. If this texture has the character of a network of weakly coupled spin clusters, then spin excitation spectra of finite clusters are expected to capture the principal features of the experimental spin response. We calculate spin excitation spectra of several clusters of spins $1/2$ coupled by Heisenberg interaction. We find that the calculated spectra exhibit a high degree of variability representative of the actual phenomenology of curates, while, at the same time, reproducing a number of important features of the experimentally measured spin response. Among such features are the spin gap, the broad peak around $\hbar \omega\simeq (40 - 70)$ meV and the sharp peak at zero frequency. The latter feature emerges due to transitions inside the ground-state multiplet of the so-called "uncompensated" clusters with an odd number of spins.