- Gael Bastien: New triangular lattice antiferromagnets: KCeS2, K0.5RuCl3 and ongoing projects
- 4. 11. 2020, 14:10
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Abstract:
Triangular lattice antiferromagnets (TLAF) are valuable due to their magnetic frustration: the impossibility to satisfy simultaneously all the magnetic interactions in the systems. The physics of TLAF was deeply investigated theoretically and experimentally in the case of 3d magnetic ions. However, the choice of heavier magnetic ions such as 4d, 5d , or 4f ions bring new possibilities such as the occurrence of anisotropic contribution to the magnetic interactions induced by the large spin-orbit coupling. These anisotropic magnetic interactions enlarge the variety of possible ground states and may lead to the realization of a quantum spin liquid state, a state of matter with strong magnetic quantum correlations but without any long-range magnetic order.
Recently several rare-earth-based TLAF were reported. Among them a dozen rare-earth-based TLAF with the delafossite crystal structure such as NaYbS2 are proposed as quantum spin liquid materials. We report here the characterization of the compound KCeS2, which despite the same crystal structure as these quantum spin liquid candidates, undergoes a long-range magnetic order below TN=0.38K [1]. By characterizing this compound and its magnetic order, we can shed light on the condition of the formation of a quantum spin liquid in TLAF.
The realization of a triangular lattice of 4d or 5d magnetic ions are rare. A way to achieve such a triangular lattice is to suppress every second magnetic site of a honeycomb layered magnet. This was achieved by intercalating K+ ions in the honeycomb magnet alpha-RuCl3 [2]. Indeed, we show signatures of a charge ordering in K0.5RuCl3 leading to a triangular lattice of magnetic ions Ru3+ (jeff=1/2) and non-magnetic ions Ru2+.
[1] G. Bastien, B. Rubrecht, E. Haeussler, P. Schlender, Z. Zangeneh, S. Avdoshenko, R. Sarkar, A. Alfonsov, S. Luther, Y. A. Onykiienko, H. C. Walker, H. Kühne, V. Grinenko, Z. Guguchia, V. Kataev, H.-H. Klauss, L. Hozoi, J. van den Brink, D. S. Inosov, B. Büchner, A. U. B. Wolter, T. Doert, Scipost Physics 9, 3.041 (2020).
[2] A. Koitzsch, C. Habenicht, E. Müller, M. Knupfer, B. Büchner, S. Kretschmer, M. Richter, J. van den Brink, F. Börrnert, D. Nowak, A. Isaeva, and T. Doert, Phys. Rev. Mater. 1, 052001 (2017).