Frustration-induced insulating chiral spin state in itinerant triangular-lattice magnets
Abstract
We study the double-exchange model at half-filling with competing superexchange interactions on a triangular lattice, combining exact diagonalization and Monte-Carlo methods. We find that in between the expected itinerant ferromagnetic and 120 Yafet-Kittel phases a robust scalar-chiral, insulating spin state emerges. At finite temperatures the ferromagnet - scalar-chiral quantum critical point is characterized by anomalous bad-metal behavior in charge transport as observed in frustrated itinerant magnets R2Mo2O7.
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