ABSTRACT
The study of impurities in antiferromagnets is of considerable interest in condensed matter physics. In this Letter we address the elementary question of the effect of vacancies on the orientation of the surrounding magnetic moments in an antiferromagnet. In the presence of a magnetic field, alternating magnetic moments are induced, which can be described by a universal expression that is valid in any ordered antiferromagnet and turns out to be independent of temperature over a large range. The universality is not destroyed by quantum fluctuations, which is demonstrated by quantum Monte Carlo simulations of the two-dimensional Heisenberg antiferromagnet. Physical predictions for finite doping are made, which are relevant for experiments probing Knight shifts and the order parameter.
ABSTRACT
The local response to a uniform field around vacancies in the two-dimensional spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet is determined by numerical quantum Monte Carlo simulations as a function of temperature. It is possible to separate the Knight shifts into uniform and staggered contributions on the lattice which are analyzed and understood in detail. The contributions show interesting long- and short-range behavior that may be of relevance in NMR and susceptibility measurements. For more than one impurity, remarkable nonlinear enhancement and cancellation effects take place. We predict that the Curie impurity susceptibility will be observable for a random impurity concentration even in the thermodynamic limit.