Nuclear spin assisted quantum tunnelling of magnetic monopoles in spin ice

Spin ice compounds have localised excitations that behave as magnetic monopoles which move by hopping from site to site, creating a chain of spins. Here the authors show that the hyperfine coupling between electron and nuclear spins is an important part of the mechanism underlying monopole motion.

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: C. Paulsen, S. R. Giblin, E. Lhotel, D. Prabhakaran, K. Matsuhira, G. Balakrishnan, S. T. Bramwell
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Publishing Group 2019-04-01
Series:Nature Communications
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09323-6