Spin- and chirality-orderings of frustrated magnets – stacked-triangular anti-ferromagnets and spin glasses

Abstract

"Chirality" is a multispin quantity representing the sense or the handedness of the noncollinear spin structures induced by spin frustration. Recent studies have revealed that the chirality often plays an important role in the ordering of certain frustrated magnets. Here I take up two such examples, stacked-triangular anti-ferromagnets and spin glasses, where the inherent chiral degree of freedom affects underlying physics and might lead to novel ordering phenomena. The first topic is the criticality of the magnetic-phase transition of vector (i.e., XY or Heisenberg) anti-ferromagnets on the three-dimensional stacked-triangular lattice. The second topic is the nature of the spin-glass ordering. I will review the recent theoretical and experimental works on these topics, with particular emphasis on the important role played by the chirality. PACS Nos.: 67.70+n, 67.57Lm