Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid and quantum criticality in spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain C14H18CuN4O10 via Wilson ratio

TL;DR

This study investigates the quantum-critical behavior of a spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain using Wilson ratio, magnetization, susceptibility, and specific heat measurements, confirming theoretical predictions and mapping its phase diagram.

Contribution

It provides experimental validation of the Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid behavior and quantum criticality in a real material, using Wilson ratio and field theory comparisons.

Findings

Wilson ratio effectively maps phase boundaries

Luttinger parameter matches conformal field theory

Material is a good realization of spin-1/2 AfHc

Abstract

The ground state of a one-dimensional spin-1/2 uniform antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain (AfHc) is a Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid which is quantum-critical with respect to applied magnetic fields upto a saturation field Hs beyond which it transforms to a fully polarised state. Wilson ratio has been predicted to be a good indicator for demarcating these phases [Phys. Rev. B 96, 220401 (2017)]. From detailed temperature and magnetic field dependent magnetisation, magnetic susceptibility and specific heat measurements in a metalorganic complex and comparisons with field theory and quantum transfer matrix method calculations, the complex was found to be a very good realisation of a spin-1/2 AfHc. Wilson ratio obtained from experimentally obtained magnetic susceptibility and magnetic contribution of specific heat values was used to map the magnetic phase diagram of the uniform spin-1/2 AfHc over large regions of phase space demarcating Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid, saturation field quantum critical, and fully polarised states. Luttinger parameter and spinon velocity were found to match very well with the values predicted from conformal field theory.