skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Proximate Quantum Spin Liquid on Designer Lattice

Journal Article · · Nano Letters
ORCiD logo [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6]; ORCiD logo [7]; ORCiD logo [7];  [1]; ORCiD logo [4];  [7]; ORCiD logo [8];  [8];  [9];  [2];  [1];  [1]
  1. Rutgers Univ., Piscataway, NJ (United States)
  2. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
  3. TRIUMF, Vancouver, BC (Canada); Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC (Canada)
  4. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China)
  5. Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhejiang (China)
  6. Rutgers Univ., Piscataway, NJ (United States); Indian Inst. of Science, Bengaluru (India)
  7. Indian Inst. of Science, Bengaluru (India)
  8. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  9. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

Complementary to bulk synthesis, here we propose a designer lattice with extremely high magnetic frustration and demonstrate the possible realization of a quantum spin liquid state from both experiments and theoretical calculations. In an ultrathin (111) CoCr2O4 slice composed of three triangular and one kagome cation planes, the absence of a spin ordering or freezing transition is demonstrated down to 0.03 K, in the presence of strong antiferromagnetic correlations in the energy scale of 30 K between Co and Cr sublattices, leading to the frustration factor of similar to 1000. Persisting spin fluctuations are observed at low temperatures via low-energy muon spin relaxation. Our calculations further demonstrate the emergence of highly degenerate magnetic ground states at the 0 K limit, due to the competition among multiply altered exchange interactions. Furthermore, these results collectively indicate the realization of a proximate quantum spin liquid state on the synthetic lattice.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities Division; Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357
OSTI ID:
1797949
Journal Information:
Nano Letters, Vol. 21, Issue 5; ISSN 1530-6984
Publisher:
American Chemical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (78)

Possible Kitaev Quantum Spin Liquid State in 2D Materials with S = 3 / 2 journal February 2020
Dynamics of a Two-Dimensional Quantum Spin Liquid: Signatures of Emergent Majorana Fermions and Fluxes journal May 2014
Electronic and magnetic properties of (1 1 1)-oriented CoCr 2 O 4 epitaxial thin film journal July 2014
Experimental Confirmation of the X-Ray Magnetic Circular Dichroism Sum Rules for Iron and Cobalt journal July 1995
Magnetic short-range order and reentrant-spin-glass-like behavior in Co Cr 2 O 4 and Mn Cr 2 O 4 by means of neutron scattering and magnetization measurements journal December 2004
Gapless quantum spin liquid ground state in the spin-1 antiferromagnet 6HB- Ba 3 NiSb 2 O 9 journal June 2016
Muon-spin-relaxation investigation of the spin dynamics of geometrically frustrated chromium spinels journal November 2002
Correlated Quantum Phenomena in the Strong Spin-Orbit Regime journal March 2014
Physical realization of a quantum spin liquid based on a complex frustration mechanism journal July 2016
Evidence for a spinon Fermi surface in a triangular-lattice quantum-spin-liquid candidate journal December 2016
Quantum spin liquids: a review journal November 2016
Two-Dimensional Electron Gases at Complex Oxide Interfaces journal July 2014
Crossover from incommensurate to commensurate magnetic orderings in CoCr 2 O 4 journal October 2009
Spin-liquid-like state in a spin-1/2 square-lattice antiferromagnet perovskite induced by d10–d0 cation mixing journal March 2018
From high temperature superconductivity to quantum spin liquid: progress in strong correlation physics journal December 2007
Quantum Magnetism in the Paratacamite Family: Towards an Ideal Kagomé Lattice journal February 2007
Quantum spin liquid states journal April 2017
Zero-and low-field spin relaxation studied by positive muons journal August 1979
Gapless Spin Liquid Ground State in the S = 1 / 2 Vanadium Oxyfluoride Kagome Antiferromagnet [ NH 4 ] 2 [ C 7 H 14 N ] [ V 7 O 6 F 18 ] journal May 2013
Observation of magnetic fragmentation in spin ice journal April 2016
Tensor network wave function of S = 1 Kitaev spin liquids journal August 2020
Geometrical lattice engineering of complex oxide heterostructures: a designer approach to emergent quantum states journal August 2016
Muon-spin relaxation in Au Fe and Cu Mn spin glasses journal January 1985
Quantum spin liquids journal November 2000
Quantum spin liquid emerging in two-dimensional correlated Dirac fermions journal April 2010
Magnetic and non-magnetic phases of a quantum spin liquid journal March 2011
Mott Electrons in an Artificial Graphenelike Crystal of Rare-Earth Nickelate journal February 2016
Classical Theory of the Ground Spin-State in Cubic Spinels journal April 1962
Zero-Field Spin Relaxation of μ + as a Probe of the Spin Dynamics of Au Fe and Cu Mn Spin-Glasses journal August 1980
Electronic Structure of a Graphene-like Artificial Crystal of NdNiO 3 journal September 2019
Emergent Magnetic State in (111)-Oriented Quasi-Two-Dimensional Spinel Oxides journal October 2019
Colloquium : Emergent properties in plane view: Strong correlations at oxide interfaces journal October 2014
Colloquium : Herbertsmithite and the search for the quantum spin liquid journal December 2016
Stretched exponential relaxation in molecular and electronic glasses journal September 1996
Spin Fluctuations in Frustrated Kagomé Lattice System Sr Cr 8 Ga 4 O 19 Studied by Muon Spin Relaxation journal December 1994
An End to the Drought of Quantum Spin Liquids journal September 2008
Interface Engineering and Emergent Phenomena in Oxide Heterostructures journal August 2018
Creating emergent phenomena in oxide superlattices journal March 2019
Coexistence of magnetic order and two-dimensional superconductivity at LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interfaces journal September 2011
Spin liquids in frustrated magnets journal March 2010
Concept and realization of Kitaev quantum spin liquids journal March 2019
Quantum spin liquids journal January 2020
Experimental identification of quantum spin liquids journal April 2019
Ordering In A Spin Glass under Applied Magnetic Field journal December 1999
Geometrically frustrated magnetic materials journal January 2001
Muon spin relaxation in UPt 3 journal August 1993
Do quantum spin liquids exist? journal August 2016
Quantum Excitations in Quantum Spin Ice journal October 2011
Spin Transport in the Quantum Spin Liquid State in the S = 1 Kitaev Model: Role of the Fractionalized Quasiparticles journal March 2020
Static magnetic moments revealed by muon spin relaxation and thermodynamic measurements in the quantum spin ice Yb 2 Ti 2 O 7 journal May 2014
Quantum frustration in organic Mott insulators: from spin liquids to unconventional superconductors journal April 2011
Spin liquid ground state of the spin- 1 2 square J 1 - J 2 Heisenberg model journal July 2012
Polar metals by geometric design journal April 2016
Interface Physics in Complex Oxide Heterostructures journal March 2011
Magnetic Reversal of the Ferroelectric Polarization in a Multiferroic Spinel Oxide journal May 2006
Continuous excitations of the triangular-lattice quantum spin liquid YbMgGaO4 journal December 2016
Rare-Earth Triangular Lattice Spin Liquid: A Single-Crystal Study of YbMgGaO 4 journal October 2015
Novel Pauli-paramagnetic quantum phase in a Mott insulator journal January 2012
Quantum and Classical Phases of the Pyrochlore Heisenberg Model with Competing Interactions journal January 2019
Emergent phenomena at oxide interfaces journal January 2012
Exchange bias in LaNiO3–LaMnO3 superlattices journal January 2012
Magnetodielectric coupling in frustrated spin systems: the spinels MCr 2 O 4 (M = Mn, Co and Ni) journal February 2010
Electric dipoles on magnetic monopoles in spin ice journal January 2012
Unconventional Magnetostructural Transition in CoCr 2 O 4 at High Magnetic Fields journal March 2013
Epitaxial growth of (1 1 1)-oriented spinel CoCr2O4/Al2O3 heterostructures journal February 2015
Phase Transitions of Dirac Electrons in Bismuth journal July 2008
Spin Ice State in Frustrated Magnetic Pyrochlore Materials journal November 2001
Ferromagnetism in LaFeO3-LaCrO3 Superlattices journal May 1998
Muon Spin Relaxation Evidence for the U(1) Quantum Spin-Liquid Ground State in the Triangular Antiferromagnet YbMgGaO 4 journal August 2016
Frustration and quantum criticality journal May 2018
A high-temperature quantum spin liquid with polaron spins journal July 2017
Strongly Geometrically Frustrated Magnets journal August 1994
Unusual ordered phases of highly frustrated magnets: a review journal April 2015
Gapless spin-liquid state in the structurally disorder-free triangular antiferromagnet NaYbO 2 journal October 2019
Majorana returns journal September 2009
Topological semimetal and Fermi-arc surface states in the electronic structure of pyrochlore iridates journal May 2011
Muon-spin-rotation measurements in the kagomé lattice systems: Cr-jarosite and Fe-jarosite journal March 1996
Strain Tuning of Ferroelectric Thin Films journal August 2007