Related papers: Chemical tuning between triangular and honeycomb s…
We study the orbitally frustrated singlet-triplet models that emerge in the context of spin-orbit coupled Mott insulators with $t_{2g}^4$ electronic configuration. In these compounds, low-energy magnetic degrees of freedom can be cast in…
Two recent theoretical works studied the role of Kitaev interactions in the newly observed incommensurate magnetic order in the hyper-honeycomb ($\beta$-Li$_2$IrO$_3$) and stripy-honeycomb ($\gamma$-Li$_2$IrO$_3$) iridates. Each of these…
The magnetic insulator $\alpha$-RuCl$_{3}$ is a promising candidate to realize Kitaev interactions on a quasi-2D honeycomb lattice. We perform extensive susceptibility measurements on single crystals of $\alpha$-RuCl$_{3}$, including…
Recently, $\alpha$-$\textrm{RuCl}_3$ has attracted much attention as a possible material realization of the honeycomb Kitaev model, which may stabilize a quantum-spin-liquid state. Compared to extensive studies on its magnetic properties,…
Recently, Co-based honeycomb magnets have been proposed as promising candidate materials to host the Kitaev spin liquid state. One of the front-runners is BaCo$_2$(AsO$_4$)$_2$ (BCAO), where it was suggested that the exchange processes…
Novel interplay of spin-orbit coupling and electron correlations in complex Ir oxides recently emerged as a new paradigm for correlated electron physics. Because of a large spin-orbit coupling of ~0.5 eV, which is comparable to the transfer…
The layered honeycomb magnet alpha-RuCl3 has been proposed as a candidate to realize a Kitaev spin model with strongly frustrated, bond-dependent, anisotropic interactions between spin-orbit entangled jeff=1/2 Ru4+ magnetic moments. Here we…
The synthesis, structure, and basic magnetic properties of Na2Co2TeO6 and Na3Co2SbO6 are reported. The crystal structures were determined by neutron powder diffraction. Na2Co2TeO6 has a two-layer hexagonal structure (space group P6322)…
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…
An intriguing idea of spin-orbit Mott insulator has been proposed to explain magnetic insulating behavior in various iridates. This scenario relies on the strength of the spin-orbit coupling being comparable to electronic correlations, and…
We report structural, magnetic, transport and thermal properties of single-crystal Ca2Ru1-xIrxO4 (0 < x< 0.65). Ca2RuO4 is a structurally-driven Mott insulator with a metal-insulator transition at TMI = 357 K, which is well separated from…
Motivated by recent experiments of a novel 5$d$ Mott insulator in Sr$_2$IrO$_4$, we have studied the two-dimensional three-orbital Hubbard model with a spin-orbit coupling $\lambda$. The variational Monte Carlo method is used to obtain the…
We herein report the successful intercalation of water molecules into the layered honeycomb lattice of Na$_2$Co$_2$TeO$_6$, a Kitaev-candidate compound, to obtain the hydrated phase Na$_2$Co$_2$TeO$_6$$\cdot$$y$H$_2$O ($y \sim$ 2.4).…
We have used resonant inelastic x-ray scattering to reveal optical magnons in a honeycomb lattice iridate $\alpha$-Li$_{2}$IrO$_{3}$. The spectrum in the energy region 20-25 meV exhibits momentum dependence, of which energy is highest at…
We report the magnetic structure and electronic properties of the honeycomb antiferromagnet $\rm NaNi_2BiO_{5.66}$. We find magnetic order with moments along the $c$ axis for temperatures below $T_{c1}=6.3(1)\>{\rm K}$ and then in the…
Honeycomb iridates are thought to have strongly spin-anisotropic exchange interactions that could lead to an extraordinary state of matter known as the Kitaev quantum spin liquid. The realization of this state requires almost perfectly…
Motivated by recent reports of metallic behavior in the recently synthesized RuI$_3$, in contrast to the Mott-insulating nature of the actively discussed $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$, as well as RuBr$_3$, we present a detailed comparative analysis of…
$\gamma$-triclinic and $\alpha$-monoclinic polymorphs of CoV$_{2}$O$_{6}$ are two of the few known transition metal ion based materials that display stepped $1/3$ magnetization plateaus at low temperatures. Neutron diffraction [M. Markkula…
Iridate heterostructures are gaining interest as their magnetic properties are much more sensitive to structural distortion compared to pure spin systems due to spin-orbital entanglement induced by strong spin-orbit coupling. While bulk…
Sr2IrO4 is a magnetic insulator driven by spin-orbit interaction (SOI) whereas the isoelectronic and isostructural Sr2RhO4 is a paramagnetic metal. The contrasting ground states have been shown to result from the critical role of the strong…