Frustration induced disordered magnetism in Ba3RuTi2O9

The title compound Ba3RuTi2O9 crystallizes with a hexagonal unit cell. It contains layers of edge shared triangular network of Ru4+ (S=1) ions. Magnetic susceptibility chi(T) and heat capacity data show no long range magnetic ordering down to 1.8K. A Curie-Weiss (CW) fitting of chi(T) yields a large antiferromagnetic CW temperature theta_CW=-166K. However, in low field, a splitting of zero field cooled (ZFC) and field cooled (FC) chi(T) is observed below ~30K. Our measurements suggest that Ba3RuTi2O9 is a highly frustrated system but only a small fraction of the spins in this system undergo a transition to a frozen magnetic state below ~30K.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures (accepted in EPJB

75As NMR local probe study of magnetism in (Eu1-xKx)Fe2As2

75As NMR measurements were performed as a function of temperature and doping in (Eu1-xKx)Fe2As2 (x=0,0.38,0.5,0.7) samples. The large Eu2+ moments and their fluctuations are found to dominate the 75As NMR properties. The 75As nuclei close to the Eu2+ moments likely have a very short spin-spin relaxation time (T2) and are wiped out of our measurement window. The 75As nuclei relatively far from Eu2+ moments are probed in this study. Increasing the Eu content progressively decreases the signal intensity with no signal found for the full-Eu sample (x=0). The large 75As NMR linewidth arises from an inhomogeneous magnetic environment around them. The spin lattice relaxation rate (1/T1) for x=0.5 and 0.7 samples is nearly independent of temperature above 100K and results from a coupling to paramagnetic fluctuations of the Eu2+ moments. The behavior of 1/T1 at lower temperatures has contributions from the antiferromagnetic fluctuations of the Eu2+ moments as also the fluctuations intrinsic to the FeAs planes and from superconductivity.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures (to appear in EPJB

Spin liquid behaviour in Jeff=1/2 triangular lattice Ba3IrTi2O9

Ba3IrTi2O9 crystallizes in a hexagonal structure consisting of a layered triangular arrangement of Ir4+ (Jeff=1/2). Magnetic susceptibility and heat capacity data show no magnetic ordering down to 0.35K inspite of a strong magnetic coupling as evidenced by a large Curie-Weiss temperature=-130K. The magnetic heat capacity follows a power law at low temperature. Our measurements suggest that Ba3IrTi2O9 is a 5d, Ir-based (Jeff=1/2), quantum spin liquid on a 2D triangular lattice.Comment: 10 pages including supplemental material, to be published in Phys. Rev. B (Rapid Comm.

Possible spin-orbit driven spin-liquid ground state in the double perovskite phase of Ba3YIr2O9

We report the structural transformation of hexagonal Ba3YIr2O9 to a cubic double perovskite form (stable in ambient conditions) under an applied pressure of 8GPa at 1273K. While the ambient pressure (AP) synthesized sample undergoes long-range magnetic ordering at 4K, the high pressure(HP) synthesized sample does not order down to 2K as evidenced from our susceptibility, heat capacity and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements. Further, for the HP sample, our heat capacity data have the form gamma*T+beta*T3 in the temperature (T) range of 2-10K with the Sommerfeld coefficient gamma=10mJ/mol-Ir K2. The 89Y NMR shift has no T-dependence in the range of 4-120K and its spin-lattice relaxation rate varies linearly with T in the range of 8-45K (above which it is T-independent). Resistance measurements of both the samples confirm that they are semiconducting. Our data provide evidence for the formation of a 5d based, gapless, quantum spin-liquid (QSL) in the cubic (HP) phase of Ba3YIr2O9. In this picture, the T term in the heat capacity and the linear variation of 89Y 1/T1 arises from excitations out of a spinon Fermi surface. Our findings lend credence to the theoretical suggestion [G. Chen, R. Pereira, and L. Balents, Phys. Rev. B 82, 174440 (2010)] that strong spin-orbit coupling can enhance quantum fluctuations and lead to a QSL state in the double perovskite lattice.Comment: 6 pages 5 figure

119Sn NMR probe of magnetic fluctuations in SnO2 nanoparticles

119Sn nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra and spin-lattice relaxation rate (1/T1) in SnO2 nanoparticles were measured as a function of temperature and compared with those of SnO2 bulk sample. A 15% loss of 119Sn NMR signal intensity for the nano sample compared to the bulk sample was observed. This is indicative of ferromagnetism from a small fraction of the sample. Another major finding is that the recovery of the 119Sn longitudinal nuclear magnetization in the nano sample follows a stretched exponential behavior, as opposed to that in bulk which is exponential. Further, the 119Sn 1/T1 at room temperature is found to be much higher for the nano sample than for its bulk counterpart. These results indicate the presence of magnetic fluctuations in SnO2 nanoparticles in contrast to the bulk (non-nano) which is diamagnetic. These local moments could arise from surface defects in the nanoparticles.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, to appear in EPL 201

Persistent spin dynamics in the pressurized spin-liquid candidate YbMgGaO4_4

Single-crystal x-ray diffraction, density-functional band-structure calculations, and muon spin relaxation ($\mu$SR) are used to probe pressure evolution of the triangular spin-liquid candidate YbMgGaO$_4$. The rhombohedral crystal structure is retained up to at least 10 GPa and shows a nearly uniform compression along both in-plane and out-of-plane directions, whereas local distortions caused by the random distribution of Mg$^{2+}$ and Ga$^{3+}$ remain mostly unchanged. The $\mu$SR data confirm persistent spin dynamics up to 2.6 GPa and down to 250 mK with no change in the muon relaxation rate. Longitudinal-field $\mu$SR reveals power-law behavior of the spin-spin autocorrelation function, both at ambient pressure and upon compression.Comment: published versio

Soft and anisotropic local moments in 4dd and 5dd mixed-valence M2_2O9_9 dimers

We investigate via exact diagonalization of finite clusters the electronic structure and magnetism of M$_2$O$_9$ dimers in the mixed-valence hexagonal perovskites A$_3$B'M$_2$O$_9$ for various different fillings of 4$d$ and 5$d$ transition-metal M ions. We find that the magnetic moments of such dimers are determined by a subtle interplay of spin-orbit coupling, Hund's coupling, and Coulomb repulsion, as well as the electron filling of the M ions. Most importantly, the magnetic moments are anisotropic and temperature-dependent. This behavior is a result of spin-orbit coupling, magnetic field effects, and the existence of several nearly-degenerate electronic configurations whose proximity allows occupation of excited states already at room temperature. This analysis is consistent with experimental susceptibility measurements for a variety of dimer-based materials. Furthermore, we perform a survey of A$_3$B'M$_2$O$_9$ materials and propose ground-state phase diagrams for the experimentally relevant M fillings of $d^{4.5}$, $d^{3.5}$ and $d^{2.5}$. Finally, our results show that the usually applied Curie-Weiss law with a constant magnetic moment cannot be used in these spin-orbit-coupled materials

Quantum spin dynamics of quasi-one-dimensional Heisenberg-Ising magnets in a transverse field: confined spinons, E8 spectrum, and quantum phase transitions

We report on high-resolution terahertz spectroscopic studies of quantum spin dynamics in the quasi-one-dimensional Ising-like ferromagnet CoNb2O6 and antiferromagnet BaCo2V2O8 as a function of an applied transverse magnetic field. In the ordered phases stabilized by inter-chain couplings, we reveal characteristics for confined spinon excitations, E8 dynamical spectrum, and field-induced quantum phase transitions. The connections between these characteristic dynamical features are found in the field-dependent evolution of the excitation spectra

Interplay of weak ferromagnetism, ferroelasticity and shape-memory effects in the spin-orbit coupled antiferromagnet K2_2ReCl6_6

The magnetic and structural phase transitions occurring in K$_2$ReCl$_6$ were studied by macroscopic and microscopic techniques. Structural phase transitions associated with rotations of the ReCl$_6$ octahedra lower the symmetry from cubic to monoclinic, form ferroelastic domains, and are visible in susceptibility, specific heat and thermal expansion measurements. In the antiferromagnetically ordered state slightly below $T_{\rm N}$=12\,K these domains can be rearranged by a magnetic field inducing a relative elongation of the polydomain crystal parallel to the field of 0.6\%. At zero field the magnetic structure in K$_2$ReCl$_6$ does not exhibit a weak ferromagnetic component, but at large magnetic field a distinct magnetic structure with a finite weak ferromagnetic component is stabilized. High magnetic fields rearrange the domains in the crystal to align the weak ferromagnetic moment parallel to the field. The altered domain structure with the crystal elongation is abruptly suppressed at lower temperature but persists upon heating to well above $T_{\rm N}$. However, heating above the lowest structural phase transition and successive cooling restore the initial shape, i.e. a magnetic shape memory effect.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figure

Ba3 Mx Ti3−x O9 (M = Ir, Rh): A family of 5d/4d-based diluted quantum spin liquids

We report the structural and magnetic properties of the 4d (M = Rh) based and 5d (M = Ir) based systems Ba3Mx Ti3−x O9 (nominally x = 0.5, 1). The studied compositions were found to crystallize in a hexagonal structure with the centrosymmetric space group P 63/mmc. The structures comprise of A2O9 polyhedra [with the A site (possibly) statistically occupied by M and Ti] in which pairs of transition metal ions are stacked along the crystallographic c axis. These pairs form triangular bilayers in the ab plane. The magnetic Rh and Ir ions occupy these bilayers, diluted by Ti ions even for x = 1. These bilayers are separated by a triangular layer which is dominantly occupied by Ti ions. From magnetization measurements we infer strong antiferromagnetic couplings for all of the materials but the absence of any spin-freezing or spin-ordering down to 2 K. Further, specific heat measurements down to 0.35 K show no sign of a phase transition for any of the compounds. Based on these thermodynamic measurements we propose the emergence of a quantum spin liquid ground state for Ba3Rh0.5Ti2.5O9, and Ba3Ir0.5Ti2.5O9, in addition to the already reported Ba3IrTi2O9