Magnetic phase diagram and spin Hamiltonian of antiferromagnet Cs$_2$CoI$_4$

TL;DR

This study investigates the magnetic properties and phase diagram of Cs$_2$CoI$_4$, revealing how a structural phase transition influences magnetic interactions and proposing a minimal Hamiltonian to explain the excitation spectrum.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of Cs$_2$CoI$_4$'s low-temperature structure and develops a minimal magnetic Hamiltonian incorporating structural effects.

Findings

Structural phase transition alters magnetic interactions.

Proposed Hamiltonian captures excitation spectrum.

Extended SU(4) spin-wave theory applied.

Abstract

We report comprehensive thermodynamic and neutron scattering measurements on the $S$ = 3/2 antiferromagnet Cs$_2$CoI$_4$, a member of the thoroughly studied family of frustrated magnets Cs$_2MX_4$ ($M$ = Cu, Co, Ru, $X$ = Br, Cl, I, O). Unlike previously studied members, Cs$_2$CoI$_4$ undergoes a structural phase transition, for which we determine the low-temperature crystallographic structure. The resulting symmetry reduction strongly affects both the magnetic exchange interactions and single-ion anisotropy. Despite the large parameter space, we propose a minimal magnetic Hamiltonian that reasonably captures the observed excitation spectrum, analyzed using extended SU(4) linear spin-wave theory.