English

Frustrated Magnetism in FeGe$_3$O$_4$ with a Chiral Trillium Network

Strongly Correlated Electrons 2026-01-15 v1

Abstract

The discovery of new magnetic ground states in geometrically frustrated lattices remains a central challenge in materials science. Here, we report the synthesis, structural characterization, and frustrated magnetic properties of FeGe3_3O4_4, a newly identified compound that crystallizes in the noncentrosymmetric cubic space group P213P2_13. In this structure, Fe atoms form an intricate double-trillium lattice with nearest-neighbor Fe--Fe distances of \sim4.2~\AA{}, while Ge2+^{2+} ions mediate magnetic interactions through Fe-Ge-Fe pathways. Field-dependent magnetization at 2~K shows a pronounced nonlinearity, reaching a maximum moment of 2.55(3)~μB\mu_\mathrm{B}/Fe2+^{2+} at 70~kOe without evidence of saturation. Magnetic susceptibility, heat capacity, and neutron scattering collectively reveal the onset of short-range magnetic interactions near 5~K, with no long-range ordering detected down to 0.06~K. Specific heat measurements demonstrate strong frustration: only \sim34\% of the expected magnetic entropy is recovered at 2.4~K. Taken together, these results establish FeGe3_3O4_4 as a rare example of a geometrically frustrated trillium-lattice magnet, offering a promising platform for exploring exotic quantum magnetic phenomena.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2601.08947,
  title  = {Frustrated Magnetism in FeGe$_3$O$_4$ with a Chiral Trillium Network},
  author = {Matt Boswell and Mingyu Xu and Haozhe Wang and Mouyang Cheng and N. Li and X. F. Sun and Haidong Zhou and Huibo Cao and Mingda Li and Weiwei Xie},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.08947},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

26 pages, 4+6 figures