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Title: Direct evidence for dominant bond-directional interactions in a honeycomb lattice iridate Na2IrO3

Journal Article · · Nature Physics
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys3322· OSTI ID:1355347
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [3];  [3];  [2];  [2];  [4];  [4];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [7]
  1. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Materials Science Division
  2. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source (APS)
  3. Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Mohali, Knowledge City (India)
  4. European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (France)
  5. Masaryk University (Czech Republic). Central European Institute of Technology
  6. Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research (Germany); University of Stuttgart (Germany). Institute for Functional Matter and Quantum Technologies
  7. Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research (Germany)

We show that heisenberg interactions are ubiquitous in magnetic materials and play a central role in modelling and designing quantum magnets. Bond-directional interactions offer a novel alternative to Heisenberg exchange and provide the building blocks of the Kitaev model, which has a quantum spin liquid as its exact ground state. Honeycomb iridates, A2IrO3 (A = Na, Li), offer potential realizations of the Kitaev magnetic exchange coupling, and their reported magnetic behaviour may be interpreted within the Kitaev framework. However, the extent of their relevance to the Kitaev model remains unclear, as evidence for bond-directional interactions has so far been indirect. Here we present direct evidence for dominant bond-directional interactions in antiferromagnetic Na2IrO3 and show that they lead to strong magnetic frustration. Diffuse magnetic X-ray scattering reveals broken spin-rotational symmetry even above the Néel temperature, with the three spin components exhibiting short-range correlations along distinct crystallographic directions. Lastly, this spin- and real-space entanglement directly uncovers the bond-directional nature of these interactions, thus providing a direct connection between honeycomb iridates and Kitaev physics.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357
OSTI ID:
1355347
Journal Information:
Nature Physics, Vol. 11, Issue 6; ISSN 1745-2473
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group (NPG)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 273 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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A spin–orbital-entangled quantum liquid on a honeycomb lattice journal February 2018
Iridates from the molecular side journal July 2016
Raman spectroscopic signature of fractionalized excitations in the harmonic-honeycomb iridates β- and γ-Li2IrO3 journal July 2016
Proximate Kitaev quantum spin liquid behaviour in a honeycomb magnet journal April 2016
Observation of a d-wave gap in electron-doped Sr2IrO4 journal October 2015
Breakdown of magnons in a strongly spin-orbital coupled magnet journal October 2017
Excitations in the field-induced quantum spin liquid state of α-RuCl3 journal February 2018
Two-dimensional spin liquid behaviour in the triangular-honeycomb antiferromagnet TbInO3 journal January 2019
Single crystal growth from separated educts and its application to lithium transition-metal oxides journal October 2016
Synergism and aggregation behaviour in an aqueous binary mixture of cationic–zwitterionic surfactants: physico-chemical characterization with molecular simulation approach journal January 2018
Spin orientations of the spin-half Ir 4+ ions in Sr 3 NiIrO 6 , Sr 2 IrO 4 , and Na 2 IrO 3 : Density functional, perturbation theory, and Madelung potential analyses journal March 2016
The 2016 oxide electronic materials and oxide interfaces roadmap journal October 2016
Recent progress on correlated electron systems with strong spin–orbit coupling journal August 2016
Quantum spin liquids: a review journal November 2016
The challenge of spin–orbit-tuned ground states in iridates: a key issues review journal February 2018
Frustration and quantum criticality journal May 2018
Emergent ultrafast phenomena in correlated oxides and heterostructures journal January 2017
Large off-diagonal exchange couplings and spin liquid states in C 3 -symmetric iridates journal October 2019
Chemical tuning between triangular and honeycomb structures in a 5 d spin-orbit Mott insulator journal December 2019
Counterrotating magnetic order in the honeycomb layers of NaNi 2 BiO 6 δ journal December 2019
Lattice dynamics and structural transition of the hyperhoneycomb iridate β Li 2 IrO 3 investigated by high-pressure Raman scattering journal February 2020
Fragile magnetic order in the honeycomb lattice Iridate Na 2 IrO 3 revealed by magnetic impurity doping journal October 2015
Selection of direction of the ordered moments in Na 2 IrO 3 and α RuCl 3 journal August 2016
Magnetic dynamics and spin-phonon coupling in the antiferromagnet Ni 2 NbBO 6 journal September 2018
Spin dynamics and field-induced magnetic phase transition in the honeycomb Kitaev magnet α Li 2 IrO 3 journal February 2019
Magnetic anisotropy of the alkali iridate Na 2 IrO 3 at high magnetic fields: Evidence for strong ferromagnetic Kitaev correlations journal February 2019
First-Principles Study of the Magnetic Structure of Na 2 IrO 3 journal October 2015
Hidden Plaquette Order in a Classical Spin Liquid Stabilized by Strong Off-Diagonal Exchange journal June 2019
Field-induced QCD 3 -Chern-Simons quantum criticalities in Kitaev materials journal January 2020
X-ray magnetic diffraction under high pressure journal June 2019
Weak-field induced nonmagnetic state in a Co-based honeycomb journal January 2020
Neutron scattering in the proximate quantum spin liquid α-RuCl 3 journal June 2017
The physics of quantum materials journal October 2017
Direct experimental observation of the molecular J eff = 3/2 ground state in the lacunar spinel GaTa4Se8 journal October 2017
Correlated states in β-Li2IrO3 driven by applied magnetic fields journal October 2017
Concept and realization of Kitaev quantum spin liquids journal March 2019
Electronic Structure of the Kitaev Material α-RuCl3 Probed by Photoemission and Inverse Photoemission Spectroscopies journal December 2016
Field evolution of magnons in α RuCl 3 by high-resolution polarized terahertz spectroscopy journal September 2018
Ground state and low-energy excitations of the Kitaev-Heisenberg two-leg ladder journal June 2019
Low-Energy Spin Dynamics of the Honeycomb Spin Liquid Beyond the Kitaev Limit journal July 2016
Steplike metamagnetic transitions in a honeycomb lattice antiferromagnet Tb 2 Ir 3 Ga 9 journal November 2019
A high-energy-resolution resonant inelastic X-ray scattering spectrometer at ID20 of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility journal February 2018
Excitations in the field-induced quantum spin liquid state of α-RuCl3 text January 2018
Magnetic anisotropy of the alkali iridate Na2IrO3 at high magnetic fields: Evidence for strong ferromagnetic Kitaev correlations text January 2019
The 2016 oxide electronic materials and oxide interfaces roadmap text January 2016
Magnetic field-induced intermediate quantum spin liquid with a spinon Fermi surface journal May 2019
Impact of disorder on dynamics and ordering in the honeycomb-lattice iridate Na 2 IrO 3 journal February 2020
Quantum spin liquids journal January 2020
Neutron scattering in the proximate quantum spin liquid α-RuCl3. text January 2017
Superconducting quantum simulator for topological order and the toric code text January 2017
Observation of a $d$-wave gap in electron-doped Sr$_2$IrO$_4$ text January 2015
Challenges in Design of Kitaev Materials: Magnetic Interactions from Competing Energy Scales text January 2016
Honeycomb-lattice Heisenberg-Kitaev model in a magnetic field: Spin canting, metamagnetism, and vortex crystals text January 2016
Spin Liquid versus Spin Orbit Coupling on the Triangular Lattice text January 2017
Spin-orbit coupled systems in the "atomic" limit: rhenates, osmates, iridates text January 2018
Quantization of the thermal Hall conductivity at small Hall angles text January 2018
Relativistic $GW$+BSE study of the optical properties of Ruddlesden-Popper iridates text January 2018
Two-dimensional spin liquid behaviour in the triangular-honeycomb antiferromagnet TbInO$_3$ text January 2018
Observing spin fractionalization in the Kitaev spin liquid via temperature evolution of indirect resonant inelastic x-ray scattering text January 2018
Kitaev-like honeycomb magnets: Global phase behavior and emergent effective models text January 2019
Quantum Spin Liquids text January 2019
Nonequilibrium Majorana Dynamics by Quenching a Magnetic Field in Kitaev Spin Liquids text January 2019