https://doi.org/10.1007/PL00011062
Spin twists, domain walls, and the cluster spin-glass phase of weakly doped cuprates
Department of Physics, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada K7L 3N6
Received:
10
January
2000
Published online: 15 August 2000
We examine the role of spin twists in the formation of domain
walls, often called stripes, by focusing on the spin textures
found in the cluster spin glass phases of
and
.
To this end, we derive improved analytic expressions for the
spin distortions produced by a frustrating bond, both
near the core region of the bond and in the far field,
and then derive an improved expression for interaction energies
between such bonds. We critique our analytical theory
by comparison to numerical solutions of this problem
and find excellent agreement. By looking at
collections of small numbers of such bonds localized
in some region of a lattice, we demonstrate the stability
of small "clusters"of spins, each cluster having its
own orientation of its antiferromagnetic order parameter.
Then, we display a domain wall corresponding to spin twists
between clusters of locally ordered spins showing how spin twists
can serve as a mechanism for stripe formation. Since the charges
are localized in this model, we emphasize that these domain walls
are produced in a situation for which no kinetic energy is present
in the problem.
PACS: 75.50.Lk – Spin glasses and other random magnets / 74.72.-h – High-Tc compounds
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 2000