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Huang Q, Rawl R, Xie WW, Chou ES, Zapf VS, Ding XX, Mauws C, Wiebe CR, Feng EX, Cao HB, Tian W, Ma J, Qiu Y, Butch N, Zhou HD. Non-magnetic ion site disorder effects on the quantum magnetism of a spin-1/2 equilateral triangular lattice antiferromagnet. J Phys Condens Matter 2022; 34:205401. [PMID: 35189602 DOI: 10.1088/1361-648x/ac5703] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/06/2021] [Accepted: 02/21/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
With the motivation to study how non-magnetic ion site disorder affects the quantum magnetism of Ba3CoSb2O9, a spin-1/2 equilateral triangular lattice antiferromagnet, we performed DC and AC susceptibility, specific heat, elastic and inelastic neutron scattering measurements on single crystalline samples of Ba2.87Sr0.13CoSb2O9with Sr doping on non-magnetic Ba2+ion sites. The results show that Ba2.87Sr0.13CoSb2O9exhibits (i) a two-step magnetic transition at 2.7 K and 3.3 K, respectively; (ii) a possible canted 120 degree spin structure at zero field with reduced ordered moment as 1.24μB/Co; (iii) a series of spin state transitions for bothH∥ab-plane andH∥c-axis. ForH∥ab-plane, the magnetization plateau feature related to the up-up-down phase is significantly suppressed; (iv) an inelastic neutron scattering spectrum with only one gapped mode at zero field, which splits to one gapless and one gapped mode at 9 T. All these features are distinctly different from those observed for the parent compound Ba3CoSb2O9, which demonstrates that the non-magnetic ion site disorder (the Sr doping) plays a complex role on the magnetic properties beyond the conventionally expected randomization of the exchange interactions. We propose the additional effects including the enhancement of quantum spin fluctuations and introduction of a possible spatial anisotropy through the local structural distortions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Q Huang
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, United States of America
| | - R Rawl
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, United States of America
| | - W W Xie
- Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854, United States of America
| | - E S Chou
- National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32310, United States of America
| | - V S Zapf
- National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, United States of America
| | - X X Ding
- National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, United States of America
| | - C Mauws
- Department of Chemistry, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 2N2, Canada
| | - C R Wiebe
- Department of Chemistry, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 2N2, Canada
- Department of Chemistry, University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 2E9, Canada
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4M1, Canada
| | - E X Feng
- Neutron Scattering Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, United States of America
| | - H B Cao
- Neutron Scattering Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, United States of America
| | - W Tian
- Neutron Scattering Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, United States of America
| | - J Ma
- Laboratory of Artificial Structures and Quantum Control, School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, People's Republic of China
- Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 110016 Shenyang, People's Republic of China
| | - Y Qiu
- NIST Center for Neutron Research, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, United States of America
| | - N Butch
- NIST Center for Neutron Research, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, United States of America
| | - H D Zhou
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, United States of America
- National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32310, United States of America
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