The Herbertsmithite Hamiltonian: μSR measurements on single crystals

Abstract

We present transverse field muon spin rotation/relaxation measurements on single crystals of the spin-1/2 kagome antiferromagnet Herbertsmithite. We find that the spins are more easily polarized when the field is perpendicular to the kagome plane. We demonstrate that the difference in magnetization between the different directions cannot be accounted for by Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya-type interactions alone and that anisotropic axial interaction is present.