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Phys. Rev. B 68, 144422 (2003) [17 pages]

Bond order from disorder in the planar pyrochlore magnet

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O. Tchernyshyov*
Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA

O. A. Starykh
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York 11549, USA

R. Moessner
Laboratoire de Physique Théorique de l’Ecole Normale Supérieure, CNRS-UMR8541 Paris, France

A. G. Abanov§
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794-3800, USA

Received 27 January 2003; revised 16 May 2003; published 17 October 2003

We study magnetic order in the Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the checkerboard lattice, a two-dimensional version of the pyrochlore network with strong geometric frustration. By employing the semiclassical (1/S) expansion we find that quantum fluctuations of spins induce a long-range order that breaks the fourfold rotational symmetry of the lattice. The ordered phase is a valence-bond crystal. We discuss similarities and differences with the extreme quantum case S=1/2 and find a useful phenomenology to describe the bond-ordered phases.

© 2003 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevB.68.144422
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevB.68.144422
PACS:
75.10.Hk

*Electronic address: olegt@jhu.edu

Electronic address: oleg.starykh@hofstra.edu

Electronic address: moessner@lpt.ens.fr

§Electronic address: alexandre.abanov@sunysb.edu