Magnetic exchange interactions are mediated via orbital overlaps across chemical bonds. Thus, modifying the bond angles by physical pressure or strain can tune the relative strength of competing interactions. Here we present a remarkable case of such tuning between the Heisenberg (J) and Kitaev (K) exchange, which respectively establish magnetically ordered and spin liquid phases on a honeycomb lattice. We observe a rapid suppression of the Neel temperature (TN) with pressure in Ag3LiRh2O6, a spin-1/2 honeycomb lattice with both J and K couplings. Using a combined analysis of x-ray data and first-principles calculations, we find that pressure modifies the bond angles in a way that increases the |K/J| ratio and thereby suppresses TN. Consistent with this picture, we observe a spontaneous onset of muon spin relaxation (muSR) oscillations below TN at low pressure, whereas in the high-pressure phase, oscillations appear only when T < TN/2. Unlike other candidate Kitaev materials, Ag3LiRh2O6 is tuned toward a quantum critical point by pressure while avoiding a structural dimerization in the relevant pressure range.
@article{arxiv.2505.18016,
title = {Pressure tuning of competing interactions on a honeycomb lattice},
author = {Piyush Sakrikar and Bin Shen and Eduardo H. T. Poldi and Faranak Bahrami and Xiaodong Hu and Eric M. Kenney and Qiaochu Wang and Kyle W. Fruhling and Chennan Wang and Ritu Gupta and Rustem Khasanov and Hubertus Luetkens and Stuart A. Calder and Adam A. Aczel and Gilberto Fabbris and Russell J. Hemley and Kemp W. Plumb and Ying Ran and Philipp Gegenwart and Alexander A. Tsirlin and Daniel Haskel and Michael J. Graf and Fazel Tafti},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.18016},
year = {2025}
}