Ground state of an $S=1/2$ distorted diamond chain - model of $\rm Cu_3 Cl_6 (H_2 O)_2 \cdot 2H_8 C_4 SO_2$

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the ground state phases of a trimerized $S=1/2$ quantum Heisenberg chain model relevant to a specific compound, identifying three phases and explaining the non-magnetic ground state through analytical and numerical methods.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed phase diagram of the model, revealing the conditions for dimer, spin fluid, and ferrimagnetic phases, and explains the non-magnetic ground state observed experimentally.

Findings

Identification of three distinct phases on the coupling parameter plane.

The dimer phase exhibits an excitation gap consistent with experimental observations.

Numerical phase diagram obtained via Lanczos algorithm supports analytical results.

Abstract

We study the ground state of the model Hamiltonian of the trimerized $S=1/2$ quantum Heisenberg chain $\rm Cu_3 Cl_6 (H_2 O)_2 \cdot 2H_8 C_4 SO_2$ in which the non-magnetic ground state is observed recently. This model consists of stacked trimers and has three kinds of coupling constants between spins; the intra-trimer coupling constant $J_1$ and the inter-trimer coupling constants $J_2$ and $J_3$. All of these constants are assumed to be antiferromagnetic. By use of the analytical method and physical considerations, we show that there are three phases on the $\tilde J_2 - \tilde J_3$ plane ($\tilde J_2 \equiv J_2/J_1$, $\tilde J_3 \equiv J_3/J_1$), the dimer phase, the spin fluid phase and the ferrimagnetic phase. The dimer phase is caused by the frustration effect. In the dimer phase, there exists the excitation gap between the two-fold degenerate ground state and the first excited state, which explains the non-magnetic ground state observed in $\rm Cu_3 Cl_6 (H_2 O)_2 \cdot 2H_8 C_4 SO_2$. We also obtain the phase diagram on the $ \tilde J_2 - \tilde J_3$ plane from the numerical diagonalization data for finite systems by use of the Lanczos algorithm.