### Session L19: Invited Session: Spin Liquids with Disorder

2:30 PM–5:30 PM, Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Room: 253AB

Sponsoring Units: DCMP GMAG
Chair: Leon Balents, University of California, Santa Barbara

Abstract ID: BAPS.2012.MAR.L19.5

### Abstract: L19.00005 : Impurity Effects in Highly Frustrated Diamond-Lattice Antiferromagnets

4:54 PM–5:30 PM

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#### Author:

Lucile Savary
(University of California, Santa Barbara)

We consider the effects of local impurities in highly frustrated diamond lattice antiferromagnets, which exhibit large but non-extensive ground state degeneracies. Such models are appropriate to many A-site magnetic spinels. We argue very generally that sufficiently dilute impurities induce an {\sl ordered} magnetic ground state, and provide a mechanism of degeneracy breaking. The states which are selected can be determined by a swiss cheese model'' analysis, which we demonstrate numerically for a particular impurity model in this case. Moreover, we present criteria for estimating the stability of the resulting ordered phase to a competing frozen (spin glass) one. The results may explain the contrasting finding of frozen and ordered ground states in CoAl$_2$O$_4$ and MnSc$_2$S$_4$, respectively.

To cite this abstract, use the following reference: http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2012.MAR.L19.5