Singular field response and singular screening of vacancies in antiferromagnets.

For isolated vacancies in ordered local-moment antiferromagnets we show that the magnetic-field linear-response limit is generically singular: The magnetic moment associated with a vacancy in zero field is different from that in a finite field h in the limit h→0(+). The origin is a universal and singular screening cloud, which moreover leads to perfect screening as h→0(+) for magnets which display spin-flop bulk states in the weak-field limit.

Fractional impurity moments in two-dimensional noncollinear magnets.

We study dilute magnetic impurities and vacancies in two-dimensional frustrated magnets with noncollinear order. Taking the triangular-lattice Heisenberg model as an example, we use quasiclassical methods to determine the impurity contributions to the magnetization and susceptibility. Most importantly, each impurity moment is not quantized but receives nonuniversal screening corrections due to local relief of frustration. At finite temperatures, where bulk long-range order is absent, this implies an impurity-induced magnetic response of Curie form, with a prefactor corresponding to a fractional moment per impurity. We also discuss the behavior in an applied magnetic field, where we find a singular linear-response limit for overcompensated impurities.