Nematicity and fractional magnetization plateaus induced by spin-lattice coupling in the classical kagome-lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnet

We investigate the effect of spin-lattice coupling (SLC) on the magnetic properties of the classical kagomelattice Heisenberg antiferromagnet (KHAF) using improved Monte Carlo updates. The lattice modes are represented by Einstein site phonons, which introduce effective further-neighbor spin interactions in addition to the nearest-neighbor biquadratic interactions. In the weak SLC, the macroscopically degenerate coplanar ground state remains at zero field, while a 3 x 3 ordered phase accompanied by a 1/3-magnetization plateau appears in external magnetic fields. In the strong SLC, we find a nematic order at zero field and a 1/9-magnetization plateau associated with a 3 x 3 collinear order. Near the phase transition between the 1/9- and 1/3-plateau states, the ergodicity in the single spin flip is practically broken, and slow dynamics appear. We propose that relevant KHAFs with strong SLC would be realized in spinel-based materials.