TY - JOUR
T1 - Critical properties of the Kitaev-Heisenberg model
AU - Price, Craig C.
AU - Perkins, Natalia B.
PY - 2012/11/2
Y1 - 2012/11/2
N2 - We study the critical properties of the Kitaev-Heisenberg model on the honeycomb lattice at finite temperatures that might describe the physics of the quasi-two-dimensional compounds, Na 2IrO 3 and Li 2IrO 3. The model undergoes two phase transitions as a function of temperature. At low temperature, thermal fluctuations induce magnetic long-range order by the order-by-disorder mechanism. This magnetically ordered state with a spontaneously broken Z 6 symmetry persists up to a certain critical temperature. We find that there is an intermediate phase between the low-temperature, ordered phase and the high-temperature, disordered phase. Finite-sized scaling analysis suggests that the intermediate phase is a critical Kosterlitz-Thouless phase with continuously variable exponents. We argue that the intermediate phase has been observed above the low-temperature, magnetically ordered phase in Na 2IrO 3, and also, likely exists in Li 2IrO 3.
AB - We study the critical properties of the Kitaev-Heisenberg model on the honeycomb lattice at finite temperatures that might describe the physics of the quasi-two-dimensional compounds, Na 2IrO 3 and Li 2IrO 3. The model undergoes two phase transitions as a function of temperature. At low temperature, thermal fluctuations induce magnetic long-range order by the order-by-disorder mechanism. This magnetically ordered state with a spontaneously broken Z 6 symmetry persists up to a certain critical temperature. We find that there is an intermediate phase between the low-temperature, ordered phase and the high-temperature, disordered phase. Finite-sized scaling analysis suggests that the intermediate phase is a critical Kosterlitz-Thouless phase with continuously variable exponents. We argue that the intermediate phase has been observed above the low-temperature, magnetically ordered phase in Na 2IrO 3, and also, likely exists in Li 2IrO 3.
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U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.187201
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.187201
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84868322943
SN - 0031-9007
VL - 109
JO - Physical review letters
JF - Physical review letters
IS - 18
M1 - 187201
ER -