Magnetic Properties of AB-Stacked Kagome Lattice Crystals: Symmetry, Order and Duality

Abstract

This work concerns the magnetic properties of AB-stacked kagome compounds. The analysis is performed starting with a derivation of a spin Hamiltonian from symmetry principles.The resulting magnetic model exhibits a self-duality property: different sets of model parameters are related to each other through changes of the reference frame. By exploiting these relationships, we provide a very general description of the magnetic properties of AB-stacked kagome lattices, including a detailed classification of possible magnetic phases. Some of the phases correspond to magnetic ground states in known compounds, such as Mn3X systems, where X={Sn, Ge, Ga}. To aid the experiments and resolve recent controversies in the literature, we investigate the effects of the magnetic anisotropy in these structures and provide analytical solutions for changes in the spin configurations induced by these interactions. Finally, we study a more exotic set of phases, where the spin structure consists of irregular Ising-like patterns.