Néel-type antiferromagnetic order and magnetic field–temperature phase diagram in the spin-1/2 rare-earth honeycomb compound YbCl₃

Journal Article · Fri Jul 17 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · Physical Review B

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.102.014427· OSTI ID:1651256

Xing, Jie ^[1]; Feng, Erxi ^[2]; Liu, Yaohua  ^[2]; Emmanouilidou, Eve ^[1]; Hu, Chaowei ^[1]; Liu, Jinyu ^[1]; Graf, David ^[3]; Ramirez, Arthur P. ^[4]; Chen, Gang ^[5]; Cao, Huibo  ^[2]; Ni, Ni ^[1]

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1. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). California NanoSystems Inst.
2. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
3. Florida State Univ., Tallahassee, FL (United States). National High Magnetic Field Lab. (MagLab)
4. Univ. of California, Santa Cruz, CA (United States)
5. Univ. of Hong Kong; Fudan Univ., Shanghai (China). State Key Lab. of Surface Physics

Most of the searches for Kitaev materials deal with $4d/5d$ magnets with spin-orbit-coupled $J=1/2$ local moments such as iridates and $\alpha \text{-}{\mathrm{RuCl}}_3$. Here we propose the monoclinic ${\mathrm{YbCl}}_3$ with a ${\mathrm{Yb}}^{3+}$ honeycomb lattice for the exploration of Kitaev physics. We perform thermodynamic, $ac$ susceptibility, angle-dependent magnetic torque, and neutron diffraction measurements on ${\mathrm{YbCl}}_3$ single crystal. We find that the ${\mathrm{Yb}}^{3+}$ ion exhibits a Kramers doublet ground state that gives rise to an effective spin $J_{\text{eff}}=1/2$ 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 ${\mathrm{Yb}}^{3+}$ spins lie in the $ac$ plane with an angle of 16(11) ${}^{°}$ away from the $a$ 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) ${\mu }_B$ at 0.25 K, all indicate that ${\mathrm{YbCl}}_3$ 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)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
Antiferromagnetism
quantum criticality
quantum spin liquid
AC susceptibility measurements
neutron diffraction
specific heat measurements