English

Gapless quantum spin liquid ground state in the two-dimensional spin-1/2 triangular antiferromagnet YbMgGaO$_4$

Strongly Correlated Electrons 2015-11-09 v2 Materials Science Superconductivity

Abstract

Quantum spin liquid (QSL) is a novel state of matter which refuses the conventional spin freezing even at 0 K. Experimentally searching for the structurally perfect candidates is a big challenge in condensed matter physics. Here we report the successful synthesis of a new spin-1/2 triangular antiferromagnet YbMgGaO4_4 with R3ˉ\bar{3}m symmetry. The compound with an ideal two-dimensional and spatial isotropic magnetic triangular-lattice has no site-mixing magnetic defects and no antisymmetric Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya (DM) interactions. No spin freezing down to 60 mK (despite Θ\Thetaw_w \sim -4 K), the low-T power-law temperature dependence of heat capacity and nonzero susceptibility suggest that YbMgGaO4_4 is a promising gapless (\leq |Θ\Thetaw_w|/100) QSL candidate. The residual spin entropy, which is accurately determined with a non-magnetic reference LuMgGaO4_4, approaches zero (<< 0.6 \%). This indicates that the possible QSL ground state (GS) of the frustrated spin system has been experimentally achieved at the lowest measurement temperatures.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1506.06992,
  title  = {Gapless quantum spin liquid ground state in the two-dimensional spin-1/2 triangular antiferromagnet YbMgGaO$_4$},
  author = {Yuesheng Li and Haijun Liao and Zhen Zhang and Shiyan Li and Feng Jin and Langsheng Ling and Lei Zhang and Youming Zou and Li Pi and Zhaorong Yang and Junfeng Wang and Zhonghua Wu and Qingming Zhang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1506.06992},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

28 pages including supplementary materials, 4 figures, 33 references