Birchite CdCu(PO)SO 5HO as a model antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 Heisenberg - chain

Fujihara, Masayoshi; Jeschke, H. O.*; Morita, Katsuhiro*; Kuwai, Tomohiko*; Koda, Akihiro*; Okabe, Hirotaka*; Matsuo, Akira*; Kindo, Koichi*; Mitsuda, Setsuo*

Physical Review Materials (Internet), 6(11), p.114408_1 - 114408_8, 2022/11

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.6.114408

= 1/2 Heisenberg - chain antiferromagnets have been investigated extensively due to their exotic magnetic states. Here, we report the magnetic behavior of birchite CdCu(PO)SO5HO and its effective spin model. Experimental studies by magnetic susceptibility, magnetization, heat capacity, and SR measurements indicate the absence of long-range order down to 0.4 K. Theoretical studies reveal that birchite is a model compound for the - antiferromagnetic chain: the intrachain interactions and are antiferromagnetic and their magnitude is about 100 times larger than the interchain interactions. The magnitude of is two to three times larger than that of , thus the spin gap is expected to be only a few percent of that of . The temperature dependence of the specific heat shows a broad peak at about 1 K ( 0.036 ), which suggests the presence of a spin gap.