Magnetic quantum coherence in trigonal and hexagonal systems

Abstract:

The tunneling behaviors of the magnetization vector are studied in ferromagnetic systems with trigonal and hexagonal crystal symmetries, respectively. The Euclidean transition amplitudes between the energetically degenerate easy directions are evaluated with the help of the dilute instanton-gas approximation. By using the effective Hamiltonian method, the ground-state tunneling level splittings are clearly shown for each kind of symmetry and are found to depend on the parity of the total spin of the ferromagnetic particle. The effective Hamiltonian method is demonstrated to be equivalent to the dilute instanton-gas approximation. Possible relevance to experiments is discussed.