Wess-Zumino-Berry phase interference in spin tunneling at excited levels with a magnetic field

Abstract

Macroscopic quantum coherence and spin-phase interference are studied between excited levels in single-domain ferromagnetic particles in a magnetic field along the hard anisotropy axis. The system has the general structure of magnetocrystalline anisotropy, such as biaxial, trigonal, tetragonal, and hexagonal symmetry. This study not only just yields the previous spin-phase interference results for the ground state tunneling, but also provide a generalization of the Kramers degeneracy to coherently spin tunneling at low-lying excited states. These analytical results are found to be in good agreement with the numerical diagonalization. We also discuss the transition from quantum to classical behavior and the possible relevance to experiment.