Order by disorder from nonmagnetic impurities in a two-dimensional quantum spin liquid

Phys Rev Lett. 2001 Feb 5;86(6):1086-9. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.1086.

Abstract

We consider doping of nonmagnetic impurities in the spin-1/2, 1/5-depleted square lattice. This structure, whose undoped phase diagram offers both magnetically ordered and spin-liquid ground states, is realized physically in CaV4O9. Doping into the ordered phase results in a progressive loss of order, which becomes complete at the percolation threshold. By contrast, doping into the spin liquids creates a phase of weak but long-ranged antiferromagnetic order, a true order-by-disorder phenomenon. We study the phase diagram of the doped system by computing the static susceptibility and staggered magnetization using a stochastic series-expansion quantum Monte Carlo technique.