Thermodynamic and muon spin-relaxation measurements have recently highlighted BiYbGeO5 as a new example of a rare-earth-based quantum dimer magnet with isolated Yb3+ spin-21 dimers. However, direct spectroscopic evidence of the triplet excitations and measurements of the structural disorder are lacking. In this work, polycrystalline BiYbGeO5 was synthesized using conventional high-temperature solid-state methods and investigated via high-resolution neutron powder diffraction and inelastic neutron scattering. Diffraction measurements down to 58 mK reveal no signatures of magnetic order and indicate that nearly 20\% of Yb3+ sites are replaced by non-magnetic Bi3+, introducing significant structural disorder. Inelastic neutron scattering shows dispersionless triplon excitations, consistent with localized, non-interacting spin dimers. Fits to the triplet excitation spectrum identify an XXZ-type anisotropic exchange with JXX = 0.11(2) meV and JZ=0.15(1) meV. These findings establish BiYbGeO5 as a structurally disordered but magnetically well-isolated quantum dimer system, providing a model platform for studying the resilience of entangled spin states to site dilution.
@article{arxiv.2505.22714,
title = {Localized Triplons and Site Stuffing in the Quantum Dimer Magnet BiYbGeO$_5$},
author = {Rachit Kapoor and J. Ramirez Diaz and D. Yahne and V. O. Garlea and G. Hester},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.22714},
year = {2025}
}