Neutron Scattering Study of Magnetic Ordering and Excitations in the Doped Spin Gap System Tl(Cu$_{1-x}$Mg$_x$)Cl$_3$

Abstract

Neutron elastic and inelastic scattering measurements have been performed in order to investigate the spin structure and the magnetic excitations in the impurity-induced antiferromagnetic ordered phase of the doped spin gap system Tl(Cu$_{1-x}$Mg$_x$)Cl$_3$ with $x=0.03$. The magnetic Bragg reflections indicative of the ordering were observed at ${\pmb Q}=(h, 0, l)$ with integer $h$ and odd $l$ below $T_{\rm N}=3.45$ K. It was found that the spin structure of the impurity-induced antiferromagnetic ordered phase on average in Tl(Cu$_{1-x}$Mg$_x$)Cl$_3$ with $x=0.03$ is the same as that of the field-induced magnetic ordered phase for ${\pmb H} \parallel b$ in the parent compound TlCuCl$_3$. The triplet magnetic excitation was clearly observed in the $a^*$-$c^*$ plane and the dispersion relations of the triplet excitation were determined along four different directions. The lowest triplet excitation corresponding to the spin gap was observed at ${\pmb Q}=(h, 0, l)$ with integer $h$ and odd $l$, as observed in TlCuCl$_3$. It was also found that the spin gap increases steeply below $T_{\rm N}$ upon decreasing temperature. This strongly indicates that the impurity-induced antiferromagnetic ordering coexists with the spin gap state in Tl(Cu$_{1-x}$Mg$_x$)Cl$_3$ with $x=0.03$.