Spin Waves and Three Dimensionality in the High-Pressure Antiferromagnetic Phase of SrCu2 (BO3)2

Quantum magnetic materials can provide explicit realizations of paradigm models in quantum many-body physics. In this context, SrCu2(BO3)2 is a faithful realization of the Shastry-Sutherland model for ideally frustrated spin dimers, even displaying several of its quantum magnetic phases as a function of pressure. We perform inelastic neutron scattering measurements on SrCu2(BO3)2 at 5.5 GPa and 4.5 K, observing spin waves that characterize the high-pressure antiferromagnetic phase. The experimental spectra are well described by linear spin-wave calculations on a Shastry-Sutherland model with an interlayer interaction, which is determined accurately as Jc=0.053(3) meV. The presence of Jc indicates the need to account for the three-dimensional nature of SrCu2(BO3)2 in theoretical models, also at lower pressures. We find that the ratio between in-plane interactions, J′/J=1.8(2), undergoes a dramatic change compared to lower pressures that we deduce is driven by a sharp drop in the dimer coupling, J. Our results underline the wide horizons opened by high-pressure inelastic neutron scattering experiments on quantum magnetic materials.