Néel-type antiferromagnetic order and magnetic field–temperature phase diagram in the spin-1/2 rare-earth honeycomb compound YbCl3
- Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). California NanoSystems Inst.
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Florida State Univ., Tallahassee, FL (United States). National High Magnetic Field Lab. (MagLab)
- Univ. of California, Santa Cruz, CA (United States)
- Univ. of Hong Kong; Fudan Univ., Shanghai (China). State Key Lab. of Surface Physics
Most of the searches for Kitaev materials deal with magnets with spin-orbit-coupled local moments such as iridates and . Here we propose the monoclinic with a honeycomb lattice for the exploration of Kitaev physics. We perform thermodynamic, susceptibility, angle-dependent magnetic torque, and neutron diffraction measurements on single crystal. We find that the ion exhibits a Kramers doublet ground state that gives rise to an effective spin local moment. Additionally, the compound exhibits short-range magnetic order below 1.20 K, followed by a long-range Néel-type antiferromagnetic order at 0.60 K, below which the ordered spins lie in the plane with an angle of 16(11) away from the axis. These orders can be suppressed by in-plane and out-of-plane magnetic fields at around 6 and 10 T, respectively. Moreover, the Néel temperature varies nonmonotonically under the out-of-plane magnetic fields, suggesting a reduced spin dimensionality. Finally, together with the strong in-plane magnetic anisotropy and the reduced order moment 0.8(1) at 0.25 K, all indicate that could be a two-dimensional spin system to proximate the Kitaev physics.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF); Ministry of Science and Technology of China
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC05-00OR22725; DMREF-1629457; SC0017862; KC0402010; DMR-1644779; 2016YFA0301001; 2016YFA0300500
- OSTI ID:
- 1651256
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review B, Vol. 102, Issue 1; ISSN 2469-9950
- Publisher:
- American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Web of Science
Similar Records
Magnetic, thermal, and electronic-transport properties of EuMg2Bi2 single crystals
Evidence of a Phonon Hall Effect in the Kitaev Spin Liquid Candidate