Singular field response and singular screening of vacancies in antiferromagnets

Phys Rev Lett. 2012 Oct 26;109(17):177203. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.177203. Epub 2012 Oct 23.

Abstract

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.