Macroscopic degeneracy and emergent frustration in a honeycomb lattice magnet

Cluster Frustration in the Breathing Pyrochlore Magnet LiGaCr_{4}S_{8}

We present a comprehensive neutron scattering study of the breathing pyrochlore magnet LiGaCr_{4}S_{8}. We observe an unconventional magnetic excitation spectrum with a separation of high- and low-energy spin dynamics in the correlated paramagnetic regime above a spin-freezing transition at 12(2) K. By fitting to magnetic diffuse-scattering data, we parametrize the spin Hamiltonian. We find that interactions are ferromagnetic within the large and small tetrahedra of the breathing pyrochlore lattice, but antiferromagnetic further-neighbor interactions are also essential to explain our data, in qualitative agreement with density-functional-theory predictions [Ghosh et al., npj Quantum Mater. 4, 63 (2019)2397-464810.1038/s41535-019-0202-z]. We explain the origin of geometrical frustration in LiGaCr_{4}S_{8} in terms of net antiferromagnetic coupling between emergent tetrahedral spin clusters that occupy a face-centered-cubic lattice. Our results provide insight into the emergence of frustration in the presence of strong further-neighbor couplings, and a blueprint for the determination of magnetic interactions in classical spin liquids.

A platform for nanomagnetism - assembled ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic dipolar tubes

We report an interesting case where magnetic phenomena can transcend mesoscopic scales. Our system consists of tubes created by the assembly of dipolar spheres. The cylindrical topology results in the breakup of degeneracy observed in planar square and triangular packings. As far as the ground state is concerned, the tubes switch from circular to axial magnetization with increasing tube length. All magnetostatic properties found in magnetic nanotubes, in which the dipolar interaction is comparable to or dominant over the exchange interaction, are reproduced by the dipolar tubes including an intermediary helically magnetized state. Besides, we discuss the antiferromagnetic phase resulting from the square arrangement of the dipolar spheres and its interesting vortex state.

Structure and Magnetic Behavior of Layered Honeycomb Tellurates, BiM(III)TeO6 (M = Cr, Mn, Fe)

New layered honeycomb tellurates, BiM(III)TeO₆ (M = Cr, Mn, Fe) were synthesized and characterized. BiM(III)TeO₆ (M = Cr, Fe) species crystallize in a trigonal space group, P3̅1c (No. 163), of edge-sharing M³⁺/Te⁶⁺O₆ octahedra, which form honeycomb-like double layers in the ab plane with Bi³⁺ cations located between the layers. Interestingly, the structure of BiMnTeO₆ is similar to those of the Cr/Fe analogues, but with monoclinic space group, P2₁/c (No. 14), attributed to the strong Jahn-Teller distortion of Mn³⁺ cations. The crystal structure of BiM(III)TeO₆ is a superstructure of PbSb₂O₆-related materials (ABB'O₆). The Cr³⁺ and Fe³⁺ cations are ordered 80% and 90%, respectively, while the Mn³⁺ ions are completely ordered on the B-site of the ABB'O₆ structure. BiCrTeO₆ shows a broad antiferromagnetic transition (AFM) at ∼17 K with a Weiss temperature (θ) of -59.85 K, while BiFeTeO₆ and BiMnTeO₆ show sharp AFM transitions at ∼11 K with θ of -27.56 K and at ∼9.5 K with θ of -17.57 K, respectively. These differences in the magnetic behavior are ascribed to the different concentration of magnetic nearest versus next-nearest neighbor interactions of magnetic cations due to the relative differences in the extent of M/Te ordering.

Frustration and chiral orderings in correlated electron systems

The term frustration refers to lattice systems whose ground state cannot simultaneously satisfy all the interactions. Frustration is an important property of correlated electron systems, which stems from the sign of loop products (similar to Wilson products) of interactions on a lattice. It was early recognized that geometric frustration can produce rather exotic physical behaviors, such as macroscopic ground state degeneracy and helimagnetism. The interest in frustrated systems was renewed two decades later in the context of spin glasses and the emergence of magnetic superstructures. In particular, Phil Anderson's proposal of a quantum spin liquid ground state for a two-dimensional lattice S  =  1/2 Heisenberg magnet generated a very active line of research that still continues. As a result of these early discoveries and conjectures, the study of frustrated models and materials exploded over the last two decades. Besides the large efforts triggered by the search of quantum spin liquids, it was also recognized that frustration plays a crucial role in a vast spectrum of physical phenomena arising from correlated electron materials. Here we review some of these phenomena with particular emphasis on the stabilization of chiral liquids and non-coplanar magnetic orderings. In particular, we focus on the ubiquitous interplay between magnetic and charge degrees of freedom in frustrated correlated electron systems and on the role of anisotropy. We demonstrate that these basic ingredients lead to exotic phenomena, such as, charge effects in Mott insulators, the stabilization of single magnetic vortices, as well as vortex and skyrmion crystals, and the emergence of different types of chiral liquids. In particular, these orderings appear more naturally in itinerant magnets with the potential of inducing a very large anomalous Hall effect.

Infrared probe of spin-phonon coupling in antiferromagnetic honeycomb lattice compound Li₂MnO₃

We investigated temperature-dependent infrared-active phonon modes of honeycomb Li2MnO3 which shows an antiferromagnetic transition at T(N)  =  36 K. In the far-infrared frequency region, we observed fourteen phonon modes. We obtained the temperature dependence of each phonon mode from the analysis of optical conductivity spectra by using the Lorentz and the Fano-type oscillator models. We found that the resonance frequencies of nine phonon modes showed an anomalous behavior near T(N) that should be attributed to the spin-phonon coupling. We calculated the magnitude of the spin-phonon coupling constant from the shift in the resonance frequencies of the phonon modes below T(N). Our results suggest that Li2MnO3 is weakly frustrated and that spin-phonon coupling plays a role in antiferromagnetic ordering.

Antiferromagnetic ordering in Li₂MnO₃ single crystals with a two-dimensional honeycomb lattice

Li(2)MnO(3) consists of a layered Mn honeycomb lattice separated by a single layer of LiO(6) octahedra along the c-axis. By using single crystal Li(2)MnO(3) samples, we have examined the physical properties and carried out both powder and single crystal neutron diffraction studies to determine that Mn moments order antiferromagnetically at T(N) = 36 K with an ordered magnetic moment of 2.3 μ(B) perpendicular to the ab plane. We have also discovered that about 35% of the full magnetic entropy is released in the supposedly simple paramagnetic phase, indicative of unusual spin dynamics at higher temperature.