The interplay between quantum effects from magnetic frustration, low-dimensionality, spin-orbit coupling, and crystal electric field in rare-earth materials leads to nontrivial ground states with unusual magnetic excitations. Here, we investigate YbTaO, which hosts a buckled square net of Yb ions with = 1/2 moments. The observed Curie-Weiss temperature is about -1 K, implying an antiferromagnetic coupling between the Yb moments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe present a comprehensive exploration of loop-gap resonators for electron spin resonance (ESR) studies, enabling investigations into the hybridization of solid-state magnetic materials with microwave polariton modes. The experimental setup, implemented in aby Quantum Design, allows for measurements of ESR spectra at temperatures as low as 2 Kelvin. The versatility of continuous wave ESR spectroscopy is demonstrated through experiments on CuSO4⋅5HO and MgCrO, showcasing the g-tensor and magnetic susceptibilities of these materials.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNoncentrosymmetric triangular magnets offer a unique platform for realizing strong quantum fluctuations. However, designing these quantum materials remains an open challenge attributable to a knowledge gap in the tunability of competing exchange interactions at the atomic level. Here, a new noncentrosymmetric triangular S = 3/2 magnet CaMnTeO is created based on careful chemical and physical considerations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCrystal field (CF) control of rare-earth (RE) ions has been employed to minimize decoherence in qubits and to enhance the effective barrier of single-molecule magnets. The CF approach has been focused on the effects of symmetry on dynamic magnetic properties. Herein, the magnitude of the CF is increased via control of the RE oxidation state.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe search for new elementary particles is one of the most basic pursuits in physics, spanning from subatomic physics to quantum materials. Magnons are the ubiquitous elementary quasiparticle to describe the excitations of fully-ordered magnetic systems. But other possibilities exist, including fractional and multipolar excitations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLanthanides in the trivalent oxidation state are typically described using an ionic picture that leads to localized magnetic moments. The hierarchical energy scales associated with trivalent lanthanides produce desirable properties for e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCHESS, chopper spectrometer examining small samples, is a planned direct geometry neutron chopper spectrometer designed to detect and analyze weak signals intrinsic to small cross sections (e.g., small mass, small magnetic moments, or neutron absorbing materials) in powders, liquids, and crystals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThree-dimensionally (3D) frustrated magnets generally exist in the magnetic diamond and pyrochlore lattices, in which quantum fluctuations suppress magnetic orders and generate highly entangled ground states. LiYbSe in a previously unreported pyrochlore lattice was discovered from LiCl flux growth. Distinct from the quantum spin liquid (QSL) candidate NaYbSe hosting a perfect triangular lattice of Yb, LiYbSe crystallizes in the cubic pyrochlore structure with space group F3 (No.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe observe a wealth of multimagnon bound states in the strongly anisotropic spin-1 triangular antiferromagnet FeI_{2} using time-domain terahertz spectroscopy. These unconventional excitations can arise in ordered magnets due to attractive magnon-magnon interactions and alter their properties. We analyze the energy-magnetic field spectrum via an exact diagonalization method for a dilute gas of interacting magnons and detect up to 4- and 6-magnon bound states, hybridized with single magnons.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe identification of a non-trivial band topology usually relies on directly probing the protected surface/edge states. But, it is difficult to achieve electronically in narrow-gap topological materials due to the small (meV) energy scales. Here, we demonstrate that band inversion, a crucial ingredient of the non-trivial band topology, can serve as an alternative, experimentally accessible indicator.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe magnetic ground state and the crystalline electric field level scheme of the triangular lattice antiferromagnet are investigated. Below mK, develops signatures of magnetic order in specific heat measurements and low energy inelastic neutron scattering data. Trivalent ions in the local environment of this compound exhibit large splittings among the lowest three Kramers doublets defining for the free ion the sextet and a ground state doublet with dipole character, consistent with recent theoretical predictions in M.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe localized f-electrons enrich the magnetic properties in rare-earth-based intermetallics. Among those, compounds with heavier 4d and 5d transition metals are even more fascinating because anomalous electronic properties may be induced by the hybridization of 4f and itinerant conduction electrons primarily from the d orbitals. Here, we describe the observation of trivalent Yb with = 1/2 at low temperatures in Yb PtP, the first of a new family of materials.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFor materials near the phase boundary between weak and strong topological insulators (TIs), their band topology depends on the band alignment, with the inverted (normal) band corresponding to the strong (weak) TI phase. Here, taking the anisotropic transition-metal pentatelluride ZrTe_{5} as an example, we show that the band inversion manifests itself as a second extremum (band gap) in the layer stacking direction, which can be probed experimentally via magnetoinfrared spectroscopy. Specifically, we find that the band anisotropy of ZrTe_{5} features a slow dispersion in the layer stacking direction, along with an additional set of optical transitions from a band gap next to the Brillouin zone center.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA promising route to realize entangled magnetic states combines geometrical frustration with quantum-tunneling effects. Spin-ice materials are canonical examples of frustration, and Ising spins in a transverse magnetic field are the simplest many-body model of quantum tunneling. Here, we show that the tripod-kagome lattice material HoMgSbO unites an icelike magnetic degeneracy with quantum-tunneling terms generated by an intrinsic splitting of the Ho ground-state doublet, which is further coupled to a nuclear spin bath.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIt is well established that in the low-temperature limit, the two-dimensional quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a square lattice (2DQHAFSL) exhibits an anomaly in its spectrum at short-wavelengths on the zone-boundary. In the vicinity of thepoint the pole in the one-magnon response exhibits a downward dispersion, is heavily damped and attenuated, giving way to an isotropic continuum of excitations extending to high energies. The origin of the anomaly and the presence of the continuum are of current theoretical interest, with suggestions focused around the idea that the latter evidences the existence of spinons in a two-dimensional system.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe quenched structural disorder in frustrated magnets can lead to apparent quantum spin liquid (QSL) behavior or to a valence bond glass state: the transition between these thermodynamic states has not been demonstrated experimentally. Herein, we report the synthesis of a novel layered rare earth hydroxide Yb(OH)SO·HO as single crystals. The interplay between the strong distortion of the triangular lattice and low point group symmetry of the three distinct Yb sites leads to quenched disorder.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe report a comprehensive inelastic neutron-scattering study of the frustrated pyrochlore antiferromagnet MgCr_{2}O_{4} in its cooperative paramagnetic regime. Theoretical modeling yields a microscopic Heisenberg model with exchange interactions up to third-nearest neighbors, which quantitatively explains all of the details of the dynamic magnetic response. Our work demonstrates that the magnetic excitations in paramagnetic MgCr_{2}O_{4} are faithfully represented in the entire Brillouin zone by a theory of magnons propagating in a highly correlated paramagnetic background.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOne-dimensional (1D) magnetic insulators have attracted significant interest as a platform for studying quasiparticle fractionalization, quantum criticality, and emergent phenomena. The spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain with antiferromagnetic nearest neighbour interactions is an important reference system; its elementary magnetic excitations are spin-1/2 quasiparticles called spinons that are created in even numbers. However, while the excitation continuum associated with two-spinon states is routinely observed, the study of four-spinon and higher multi-spinon states is an open area of research.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe original version of this Article omitted the following from the Acknowledgements: 'J. Ma's primary affiliation is Shanghai Jiao Tong University.' This has been corrected in both the PDF and HTML versions of the Article.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMagnetization plateaus in quantum magnets-where bosonic quasiparticles crystallize into emergent spin superlattices-are spectacular yet simple examples of collective quantum phenomena escaping classical description. While magnetization plateaus have been observed in a number of spin-1/2 antiferromagnets, the description of their magnetic excitations remains an open theoretical and experimental challenge. Here, we investigate the dynamical properties of the triangular-lattice spin-1/2 antiferromagnet BaCoSbO in its one-third magnetization plateau phase using a combination of nonlinear spin-wave theory and neutron scattering measurements.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMott insulators are commonly pictured with electrons localized on lattice sites, with their low-energy degrees of freedom involving spins only. Here, we observe emergent charge degrees of freedom in a molecule-based Mott insulator κ-(BEDT-TTF)Hg(SCN)Br, resulting in a quantum dipole liquid state. Electrons localized on molecular dimer lattice sites form electric dipoles that do not order at low temperatures and fluctuate with frequency detected experimentally in our Raman spectroscopy experiments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFor over a century, vibrational spectroscopy has enhanced the study of materials. Yet, assignment of particular molecular motions to vibrational excitations has relied on indirect methods. Here, we demonstrate that applying group theoretical methods to the dynamic pair distribution function analysis of neutron scattering data provides direct access to the individual atomic displacements responsible for these excitations.
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