There have been constant efforts to find exotic quantum spin-liquid (QSL)
materials. Some of the transition metal insulators dominated by the direction
dependent anisotropic exchange interaction (Kitaev model for honeycomb network
of magnetic ions) are considered to be promising cases for the same. In such
Kitaev insulators, QSL is achieved from the zero-field antiferromagnetic state
by the application of magnetic field, suppressing other exchange interactions
responsible for magnetic order. Here, we show that the features attributable to
long-range magnetic ordering of the intermetallic compound, Tb5Si3 (T_N= 69 K),
containing honey-comb network of Tb ions, are completely suppressed by a
critical applied field, H_cr, in heat-capacity and magnetization data,
mimicking the behavior of Kitaev physics candidates. The neutron diffraction
patterns as a function of H reveal that it is an incommensurate magnetic
structure that gets suppressed, showing peaks arising from multiple wave
vectors beyond Hcr. Increasing magnetic entropy as a function of H with a peak
in the magnetically ordered state is in support of some kind of magnetic
disorder in a narrow field range after H_cr. Such a high-field behavior for a
metallic heavy rare-earth system to our knowledge has not been reported in the
past and therefore is intriguing.Comment: Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, in pres