Journal
PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS
Volume 109, Issue 18, Pages -Publisher
AMER PHYSICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.187201
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Funding
- NSF [DMR-1005932]
- Division Of Materials Research
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien [1005932] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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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, Na2IrO3 and Li2IrO3. 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 Na2IrO3, and also, likely exists in Li2IrO3.
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