Two-Stage Ordering of Spins in Dipolar Spin Ice on the Kagome Lattice

Gia-Wei Chern, Paula Mellado, and O. Tchernyshyov

Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 207202 – Published 20 May 2011

Abstract

Spin ice, a peculiar thermal state of a frustrated ferromagnet on the pyrochlore lattice, has a finite entropy density and excitations carrying magnetic charge. By combining analytical arguments and Monte Carlo simulations, we show that spin ice on the two-dimensional kagome lattice orders in two stages. The intermediate phase has ordered magnetic charges and is separated from the paramagnetic phase by an Ising transition. The transition to the low-temperature phase is of the three-state Potts or Kosterlitz-Thouless type, depending on the presence of defects in the charge order.

Received 26 June 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.207202

Authors & Affiliations

Gia-Wei Chern¹, Paula Mellado², and O. Tchernyshyov³

¹Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA
²School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA
³Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA