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Inelastic neutron scattering from the spin ladder compound (VO)[sub 2]P[sub 2]O[sub 7]

Journal Article · · Physical Review Letters; (United States)
; ; ;  [1]
  1. The ISIS Facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Didcot, Oxfordshire OX11 0QX (United Kingdom) Physics Division and Center for Computationally Intensive Physics, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831 (United States) Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996 (United States) Corporate Research Laboratories, Exxon Research and Engineering Company, Annandale, New Jersey 08801 (United States)
We present results from an inelastic neutron scattering experiment on the candidate Heisenberg spin ladder vanadyl pyrophosphate, (VO)[sub 2]P[sub 2]O[sub 7]. We find evidence for a spin-wave excitation gap of [ital E][sub gap]=3.7[plus minus]0.2 meV, at a band minimum near [ital Q]=0.8 A[sup [minus]1]. This is consistent with expectations for triplet spin waves in (VO)[sub 2]P[sub 2]O[sub 7] in the spin-ladder model, and represents the first confirmation in nature of a Heisenberg antiferromagnetic spin ladder.
DOE Contract Number:
AC05-84OR21400
OSTI ID:
6821163
Journal Information:
Physical Review Letters; (United States), Journal Name: Physical Review Letters; (United States) Vol. 73:19; ISSN 0031-9007; ISSN PRLTAO
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English