Revisitng the spin-nematic phase in Linarite

Linarite is a natural mineral which displays a rich and complex phase diagram in applied fields up to 10T for temperatures below 2.8K. A frustrated J1-J2 chain system, linarite has recently been proposed to display a spin–nematic phase due to its accessible saturation field of ~9T. This dynamic phase, which can be likened to the spontaneous alignment of rod-shaped molecules in LCD screens, would be observed as a gapped excitation. Recent inelastic neutron scattering measurements in zero field have shown dispersive behaviour both parallel and perpendicular to the Cu-chains which have been successfully modelled with linear spin-wave theory [1]. Our recent LET data (RB1810092), showed a possible gapped state at high fields. Unfortunately due to temperature instability, we were not able to confirm the phase of our sample. We would like to continue this investigation as a function of field.

铅蓝矾（Linarite）是一种天然矿物，在温度低于2.8K、外加磁场最高可达10特斯拉（T）的条件下，展现出丰富且复杂的相图。作为一种阻挫J1-J2链状自旋系统，铅蓝矾因其约9特斯拉的可及饱和磁场，近来被提出可能存在自旋向列相。该动态相可类比液晶显示屏中棒状分子的自发排列，其特征表现为有隙激发。近期开展的零场非弹性中子散射实验显示，平行于和垂直于铜链（Cu-chains）的方向均存在色散行为，该结果已通过线性自旋波理论得到成功建模[1]。我们近期获取的LET实验数据（RB1810092）显示，高磁场下存在潜在的有隙态。遗憾的是，由于温度不稳定，我们无法确认样品所处的物相。我们希望能够开展磁场依赖的后续研究。