Quantum spin chains with competing interactions offer a platform where low dimensionality and frustration--both acting to suppress magnetic order--intersect. We studied magnetic ordering in the spin-1/2 chain compound AgCuVO4 using muon spin spectroscopy and neutron diffraction. Long-range magnetic order emerges at TN=2.0(1) K, which is ∼1/200 of the dominant intrachain coupling J and ∼1/15 of the interchain interactions. The collinear incommensurate amplitude-modulated magnetic structure features a reduced ordered moment of 0.13(3) μB, confined to the ab plane and modulated along the c axis--perpendicular to the spin chains--indicating frustrated interchain couplings. The low TN, small moment, and incommensurate order highlight strong frustration, positioning AgCuVO4 as a model system for exploring frustration in quantum spin chains.
@article{arxiv.2507.19207,
title = {Incommensurate magnetic order arising from frustrated interchain interactions in the spin-1/2 chain compound AgCuVO$_4$},
author = {A. Hromov and A. Zorko and M. Gomilšek and I. Puente Orench and L. Keller and T. Shiroka and A. Prokofiev and M. Pregelj},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2507.19207},
year = {2025}
}