Low dimensional quantum paramagnets

A quantum paramagnet is a material with interacting spins that possesses a paramagnetic ground state and an energy gap to all excitations. This dissertation focuses on studying the magnetic excitation spectrum and the quantum critical phenomena of such low dimensional quantum paramagnet systems.; Inelastic neutron scattering (INS) measurements of Cu(Quinoxaline)Br 2 was performed on a partially deuterated powder sample. Magnetic neutron scattering was identified above an energy gap of 1.9 meV. Consideration of the sharp spectral max imum and wave vector dependence of the scattering and polymeric structure further identifies the material as a two-legged spin-1/2 ladder. The continuous uniform transformation theory provides an excellent account of the data with leg exchange J&dvbm0; =2.0 meV and the rung exchange J⊥ =3.3 meV.; INS study of (2,3 - dimethylpyridinium)2CuBr4 (DIMPY) in both powder and single crystalline form are presented to understand the origin of the spin gap and what is the right spin Hamiltonian. Magnetic excitations are found above a 0.3 meV energy gap. The excitation only disperses along the a-direction with a bandwidth that exceeds 1.7 meV. The conclusion to be a S=1/2 two-legged spin ladder is supported by the material structure and INS measurement. External magnetic field drives the system into a critical region and induced low energy excitation continuum above critical field was studied.; Piperazinium Hexachlorodicuprate (PHCC) is a two-dimensional antiferromagnet. We studied the behavior in the vicinity of the quantum critical point (QCP) where the spin gap is closed by an applied magnetic field by INS. The energy and damping of the low energy excitations were measured in the vicinity of the QCP where both quantities become strongly temperature dependent, which can be successfully described by a selfconsistent Hartree-Fock theory of strongly interacting bosons developed by Sachdev and Dunkel. A preliminary study of hydrostatic pressure effects indicates that it may be possible to drive the system to criticality in this way as well.; The derivation of the static spin correlation function S( Q) using sum rules and the SMA and a calculation of the neutron transmission correction factor for any sample shape are also included as appendixes.