The Effect of Intrinsic Quantum Fluctuations on the Phase Diagram of Anisotropic Dipolar Magnets

TL;DR

This paper investigates how intrinsic quantum fluctuations from off-diagonal dipolar interactions influence the phase diagram of anisotropic dipolar magnets like LiHoF4, revealing limitations of simple Ising models.

Contribution

It introduces a numerical mechanism demonstrating the significance of quantum fluctuations in shaping the phase diagram, challenging the adequacy of traditional Ising descriptions.

Findings

Quantum fluctuations affect critical temperatures in dipolar magnets.

Off-diagonal dipolar terms are crucial for accurate phase diagram modeling.

Simple Ising models are insufficient for describing LiHoF4's behavior.

Abstract

The rare-earth material $\mathrm{LiHoF_4}$ is believed to be an experimental realization of the celebrated (dipolar) Ising model, and upon the inclusion of a transverse field $B_x$, an archetypal quantum Ising model. Moreover, by substituting the magnetic Ho ions by non-magnetic Y ions, disorder can be introduced into the system giving rise to a dipolar disordered magnet and at high disorders to a spin-glass. Indeed, this material has been scrutinized experimentally, numerically and theoretically over many decades with the aim of understanding various collective magnetic phenomena. One of the to-date open questions is the discrepancy between the experimental and theoretical $B_x -T$ phase diagram at low-fields and high temperatures. Here we propose a mechanism, backed by numerical results, that highlights the importance of quantum fluctuations induced by the off-diagonal dipolar terms, in determining the critical temperature of anisotropic dipolar magnets in the presence and in the absence of a transverse field. We thus show that the description as a simple Ising system is insufficient to quantitatively describe the full phase diagram of $\mathrm{LiHoF_4}$, for the pure as well as for the dilute system.