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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 101 » Issue 24
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 247202 (2008) [4 pages]

Thermodynamics of the Spin Luttinger Liquid in a Model Ladder Material

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Ch. Rüegg1, K. Kiefer2, B. Thielemann3, D. F. McMorrow1, V. Zapf4, B. Normand5, M. B. Zvonarev6, P. Bouillot6, C. Kollath7, T. Giamarchi6, S. Capponi8,9, D. Poilblanc9,8, D. Biner10, and K. W. Krämer10
1London Centre for Nanotechnology and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom
2BENSC, Helmholtz Centre Berlin for Materials and Energy, D-14109 Berlin, Germany
3Laboratory for Neutron Scattering, ETH Zurich and Paul Scherrer Institute, CH-5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland
4NHMFL, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA
5Institute for Theoretical Physics, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
6DPMC-MaNEP, Université de Geneve, CH-1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland
7Centre de Physique Théorique, École Polytechnique, CNRS, 91128 Palaiseau, France
8Université de Toulouse, UPS, Laboratoire de Physique Théorique, IRSAMC, F-31062 Toulouse, France
9CNRS, UMR 5152, F-31062 Toulouse, France
10Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Bern, CH-3000 Bern 9, Switzerland

Received 19 August 2008; revised 24 October 2008; published 10 December 2008

The phase diagram in temperature and magnetic field of the metal-organic, two-leg, spin-ladder compound (C5H12N)2CuBr4 is studied by measurements of the specific heat and the magnetocaloric effect. We demonstrate the presence of an extended spin Luttinger-liquid phase between two field-induced quantum critical points and over a broad range of temperature. Based on an ideal spin-ladder Hamiltonian, comprehensive numerical modeling of the ladder specific heat yields excellent quantitative agreement with the experimental data across the entire phase diagram.

© 2008 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.247202
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.247202
PACS:
75.10.Jm, 75.40.Cx, 75.40.Mg
 
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