PHCC

Chemical formula:

(C4H12N2)Cu2Cl6-6xBr6x

Lattice type:


Triclinic

How to grow:

Wet chemistry synthesis

Magnetic model:

S=1/2 dimer system

Why is it cool:

A prototypical spin dimer system that can be conveniently tuned to long-range order by both field and pressure; also easily adopts bond disorder via chemical substituion

PHCC crystal

Piperazinium hexachlorodicuprate, or PHCC for short, is a pretty amazing dimer system. At normal conditions the couplings between the individual S=1/2 antiferromagnetic dimers are not strong enough to break the singlet-like ground state and the material is gapped. However, moderate magnetic field or hydrostatic pressure may close the spin gap. While the former scenario is a rather typical example of "magnetic Bose-Einstein condensation", the latter has a twist: by increasing the pressure one actually drives PHCC through a cascade of rather different magnetically ordered states! This can be easily captured by muSR, neutrons or even light scattering.


Another scenario for PHCC is related to the possibility of replacing chlorine with bromine. This modifies the superexchange between the copper ions and thus creates disorder in the magnetic bonds. Studying the fate of boson condensation in the presence of randomness is another exciting research topic.


PHCC spectrum
Magnetic excitations in a bond-disordered PHCC, measured on a time-of-flight spectrometer CNCS.

A. Mannig, J. S. Moeller, M. Thede, D. Hüvonen, T. Lancaster, F. Xiao, R. C. Williams, Z. Guguchia, R. Khasanov, E. Morenzoni and A. Zheludev, Effect of disorder on a pressure-​induced z=1 magnetic quantum phase transition, external page Phys. Rev. B 94, 144418 (2016)external page arXiv:1607.05117

V. Glazkov, Y V. Krasnikova, D Hüvonen and A Zheludev, Formation of the S=1 paramagnetic centers in the bond-​diluted spin-​gap magnetexternal page J. Phys: Condens. Matt. 28, 206003 (2016); external page arXiv:1512.02405

G. Perren, J. S. Möller, D. Hüvonen, A. A. Podlesnyak, and A. Zheludev,  Spin dynamics in pressure-​induced magnetically ordered phases in (C4H12N2)Cu2Cl6, external page Phys. Rev. B 92, 054413 (2015); external page arXiv:1506.01876

V.N. Glazkov, G. Skoblin, D. Hüvonen, T.S. Yankova, A. Zheludev, Formation of the ferromagnetically bound spin pairs in the bond-​diluted spin-​gap antiferromagnet PHCC, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 26, 486002 (2014); external page arXiv:1401.4665

M. Thede, A. Mannig, M. Månsson, D. Hüvonen, R. Khasanov, E. Morenzoni, A. Zheludev , Pressure-​induced quantum critical and multicritical points in a frustrated spin liquid, external page Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 087204 (2014);  external page arXiv:1310.7807

D. Hüvonen, G. Ballon, A. Zheludev, Field-​concentration phase diagram of a quantum spin liquid with bond defects, external page Phys. Rev. B 88, 094402 (2013); external page arXiv:1307.2750

D. Huvonen, S. Zhao, G. Ehlers, M. Månsson, S. N. Gvasaliya, A. Zheludev, Excitations in a quantum spin liquid with random bonds, external page Phys. Rev. B 86, 214408 (2012)external page arXiv:1210.5899

D. Hüvonen, S. Zhao, M. Månsson, T. Yankova, E. Ressouche, C. Niedermayer, M. Laver, S. N. Gvasaliya, A. Zheludev, Field-​induced criticality in a gapped quantum magnet with bond disorder, external page Phys. Rev. B 85, 100410(R) (2012)external page arXiv:1201.6143

V. N. Glazkov, T. S. Yankova, J. Sichelschmidt, D. Hüvonen, A. Zheludev, Electron spin resonance study of anisotropic interactions in a two-​dimensional spin gap magnet PHCCexternal page Phys. Rev. B 85, 054415 (2012); external page arXiv:1111.3223v1

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