Experimental signatures of a three-dimensional quantum spin liquid in effective spin-1/2 Ce2Zr2O7 pyrochlore

Gao, Bin; Chen, Tong; Tam, David W.; Huang, Chien -Lung; Sasmal, Kalyan; Adroja, Devashibhai T.; Ye, Feng; Cao, Huibo; Sala, Gabriele; Stone, Matthew B.; Baines, Christopher; Verezhak, Joel A. T.; Hu, Haoyu; Chung, Jae -Ho; Xu, Xianghan; Cheong, Sang -Wook; Nallaiyan, Manivannan; Spagna, Stefano; Maple, M. Brian; Nevidomskyy, Andriy H.; Morosan, Emilia; Chen, Gang; Dai, Pengcheng

doi:10.1038/s41567-019-0577-6

Title: Experimental signatures of a three-dimensional quantum spin liquid in effective spin-1/2 Ce₂Zr₂O₇ pyrochlore

Journal Article · 15 July 2019 · Nature Physics

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-019-0577-6 · OSTI ID:1558477

Gao, Bin ^[1]; Chen, Tong ^[1];

^[1];

^[1]; Sasmal, Kalyan ^[2]; Adroja, Devashibhai T. ^[3];

^[4];

^[4]; Baines, Christopher ^[5]; Verezhak, Joel A. T. ^[5]; Hu, Haoyu ^[1]; Chung, Jae -Ho ^[1]; Xu, Xianghan ^[6]; Cheong, Sang -Wook ^[6]; Nallaiyan, Manivannan ^[7]; Spagna, Stefano ^[7]; Maple, M. Brian ^[2]; Nevidomskyy, Andriy H. ^[1] more »

Rice Univ., Houston, TX (United States)
Univ. of California, San Diego, CA (United States)
STFC Rutherford-Appleton Lab, Didcot (United Kingdom)
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Paul Scherrer Inst. (PSI), Villigen (Switzerland)
Rutgers Univ., Piscataway, NJ (United States)
Quantum Design Inc., San Diego, CA (United States)
The Univ. of Hong Kong, Hong Kong (China); Fudan Univ., Shanghai (China)

A quantum spin liquid is a state of matter where unpaired electrons’ spins, although entangled, do not show magnetic order even at the zero temperature. The realization of a quantum spin liquid is a long-sought goal in condensed-matter physics. Although neutron scattering experiments on the two-dimensional spin-1/2 kagome lattice ZnCu₃(OD)₆Cl₂ and triangular lattice YbMgGaO₄ have found evidence for the hallmark of a quantum spin liquid at very low temperature (a continuum of magnetic excitations), the presence of magnetic and non-magnetic site chemical disorder complicates the interpretation of the data. Recently, the three-dimensional Ce³⁺ pyrochlore lattice Ce₂Sn₂O₇ has been suggested as a clean, effective spin-1/2 quantum spin liquid candidate, but evidence of a spin excitation continuum is still missing. Furthermore, we use thermodynamic, muon spin relaxation and neutron scattering experiments on single crystals of Ce₂Zr₂O₇, a compound isostructural to Ce₂Sn₂O₇, to demonstrate the absence of magnetic ordering and the presence of a spin excitation continuum at 35 mK. With no evidence of oxygen deficiency and magnetic/non-magnetic ion disorder seen by neutron diffraction and diffuse scattering measurements, Ce₂Zr₂O₇ may be a three-dimensional pyrochlore lattice quantum spin liquid material with minimum magnetic and non-magnetic chemical disorder.

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Research Organization:: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Rice Univ., Houston, TX (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725; SC0019503

OSTI ID:: 1558477

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1661263; OSTI ID: 2281358

Journal Information:: Nature Physics, Vol. 15, Issue 7; ISSN 1745-2473

Publisher:: Nature Publishing Group (NPG)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 72 works

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