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arXiv · 1310.3483

Coulombic Charge Ice

Paul McClarty·Aroon O'Brien·Frank Pollmann
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Abstract

We consider a classical model of charges $\pm q$ on a pyrochlore lattice in the presence of long range Coulomb interactions. This model first appeared in the early literature on charge order in magnetite. In the limit where the interactions become short-ranged, the model has a ground state with an extensive entropy and dipolar charge-charge correlations. When long range interactions are introduced, the exact degeneracy is broken. We study the thermodynamics of the model and show the presence of a correlated charge liquid within a temperature window in which the physics is well described as a liquid of screened charged defects. The structure factor in this phase, which has smeared pinch points at the reciprocal lattice points, may be used to detect charge ice experimentally. In addition, the model exhibits fractionally charged excitations $\pm q/2$ which are shown to interact via a $1/r$ potential. At lower temperatures, the model exhibits a transition to a long-range ordered phase. We are able to treat the Coulombic charge ice model and the dipolar spin ice model on an equal footing by mapping both to a constrained charge model on the diamond lattice. We find that states of the two ice models are related by a staggering field which is reflected in the energetics of these two models. From this perspective we can understand the origin of the spin ice and charge ice ground states as coming from a dipolar model on a diamond lattice. We study the properties of charge ice in an external electric field finding that the correlated liquid is robust to the presence of a field in contrast to the case of spin ice in a magnetic field. Finally, we comment on the transport properties of Coulombic charge ice in the correlated liquid phase.

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Paul McClarty, Aroon O'Brien, Frank Pollmann. 2013-10-13. Coulombic Charge Ice. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.89.195123

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