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Crystal field excitations from Yb3+ ions at defective sites in highly stuffed Yb2Ti2O7

Journal Article · · Physical Review B
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5]
  1. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Neutron Scattering Division; McMaster Univ., Hamilton, ON (Canada). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
  2. McMaster Univ., Hamilton, ON (Canada). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
  3. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Neutron Scattering Division
  4. McMaster Univ., Hamilton, ON (Canada). Brockhouse Inst. for Materials Research
  5. McMaster Univ., Hamilton, ON (Canada). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy and Brockhouse Inst. for Materials Research; Canadian Inst. for Advanced Research (CIFAR), Toronto (Canada)

The pyrochlore magnet Yb2Ti2O7 has been proposed as a quantum spin ice candidate, a spin liquid state expected to display emergent quantum electrodynamics with gauge photons among its elementary excitations. However, Yb2Ti2O7's ground state is known to be very sensitive to its precise stoichiometry. Powder samples, produced by solid-state synthesis at relatively low temperatures, tend to be stoichiometric, while single crystals grown from the melt tend to display weak “stuffing” wherein ~2% of the Yb3+, normally at the A site of the A2B2O7 pyrochlore structure, reside as well at the B site. In these samples Yb3+ ions should exist in defective environments at low levels and be subjected to crystalline electric fields very different from those at the stoichiometric A sites. Neutron scattering measurements of Yb3+ in four compositions of Yb2+xTi2-xO7-y show the spectroscopic signatures for these defective Yb3+ ions and explicitly demonstrate that the spin anisotropy of the Yb3+ moment changes from XY-like for stoichiometric Yb3+ to Ising-like for “stuffed” B site Yb3+ or for A site Yb3+ in the presence of oxygen vacancies.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22); Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1474482
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1441113
Journal Information:
Physical Review B, Journal Name: Physical Review B Journal Issue: 22 Vol. 97; ISSN 2469-9950; ISSN PRBMDO
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (1)

Quantum Spin Ice Dynamics in the Dipole-Octupole Pyrochlore Magnet Ce 2 Zr 2 O 7 journal May 2019

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