Geometrical frustration versus Kitaev interactions in BaCo2(AsO4)2

Thomas Halloran; Félix Desrochers; Emily Z. Zhang; Tong Chen; Li Ern Chern; Zhijun Xu; Barry Winn; M. Graves-Brook; M. B. Stone; Alexander I. Kolesnikov; Yiming Qiu; Ruidan Zhong; Robert Cava; Yong Baek Kim; Collin Broholm

doi:10.1073/pnas.2215509119

Geometrical frustration versus Kitaev interactions in BaCo₂(AsO₄)₂

Thomas Halloran, Félix Desrochers, Emily Z. Zhang, Tong Chen, Li Ern Chern, Zhijun Xu, Barry Winn, M. Graves-Brook, M. B. Stone, Alexander I. Kolesnikov, Yiming Qiu, Ruidan Zhong, Robert Cava, Yong Baek Kim, Collin Broholm

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

36 Scopus citations

Abstract

Recently, Co-based honeycomb magnets have been proposed as promising candidate materials to host the Kitaev spin liquid (KSL) state. One of the front-runners is BaCo₂(AsO₄)₂ (BCAO), where it was suggested that the exchange processes between Co²⁺ ions via the surrounding edge-sharing oxygen octahedra could give rise to bond-dependent Kitaev interactions. In this work, we present and analyze a comprehensive inelastic neutron scattering (INS) study of BCAO with fields in the honeycomb plane. Combining the constraints from the magnon excitations in the high-field polarized state and the inelastic spin structure factor measured in zero magnetic field, we examine two leading theoretical models: the Kitaev-type JK 00⁰ model and the XXZ-J₁-J₃model. We show that the existing experimental data can be consistently accounted for by the XXZ-J₁-J₃model but not by the JK 00⁰ model, and we discuss the implications of these results for the realization of a spin liquid phase in BCAO and more generally for the realization of the Kitaev model in cobaltates.

Original language	English
Article number	e2215509119
Journal	Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume	120
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2215509119
State	Published - Jan 10 2023

Funding

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. We gratefully acknowledge valuable discussions with Peter Armitage, Hae-Young Kee, Xinshu Zhang, and Sreekar Voleti. This work was supported as part of the Institute for Quantum Matter, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences under Award No. DE-SC0019331. C.B. was supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore foundation EPIQS program under GBMF9456. F.D., E.Z.Z., and Y.B.K. were supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Center for Quantum Materials at the University of Toronto. E.Z.Z. was further supported by the NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarships-Doctoral (CGS-D). Access to MACS was provided by the Center for High Resolution Neutron Scattering, a partnership between the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the NSF under Agreement No. DMR-1508249. The identification of any commercial product or trade name does not imply endorsement or recommendation by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The research at the ORNL Spallation Neutron Source was sponsored by the US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences. A portion of this research used resources at the Spallation Neutron Source, a DOE Office of Science User Facility operated by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Most of the computations were performed on the Cedar and Niagara clusters, which are hosted by WestGrid and SciNet in partnership with Compute Canada.

Keywords

Kitaev model
frustrated magnetism
inelastic neutron scattering
molecular dynamics

Access to Document

10.1073/pnas.2215509119

Cite this

Halloran, T., Desrochers, F., Zhang, E. Z., Chen, T., Chern, L. E., Xu, Z., Winn, B., Graves-Brook, M., Stone, M. B., Kolesnikov, A. I., Qiu, Y., Zhong, R., Cava, R., Kim, Y. B., & Broholm, C. (2023). Geometrical frustration versus Kitaev interactions in BaCo₂(AsO₄)₂. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 120(2), Article e2215509119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2215509119

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abstract = "Recently, Co-based honeycomb magnets have been proposed as promising candidate materials to host the Kitaev spin liquid (KSL) state. One of the front-runners is BaCo2(AsO4)2 (BCAO), where it was suggested that the exchange processes between Co2+ ions via the surrounding edge-sharing oxygen octahedra could give rise to bond-dependent Kitaev interactions. In this work, we present and analyze a comprehensive inelastic neutron scattering (INS) study of BCAO with fields in the honeycomb plane. Combining the constraints from the magnon excitations in the high-field polarized state and the inelastic spin structure factor measured in zero magnetic field, we examine two leading theoretical models: the Kitaev-type JK 000 model and the XXZ-J1-J3model. We show that the existing experimental data can be consistently accounted for by the XXZ-J1-J3model but not by the JK 000 model, and we discuss the implications of these results for the realization of a spin liquid phase in BCAO and more generally for the realization of the Kitaev model in cobaltates.",

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Halloran, T, Desrochers, F, Zhang, EZ, Chen, T, Chern, LE, Xu, Z, Winn, B, Graves-Brook, M, Stone, MB , Kolesnikov, AI, Qiu, Y, Zhong, R, Cava, R, Kim, YB & Broholm, C 2023, 'Geometrical frustration versus Kitaev interactions in BaCo₂(AsO₄)₂', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 120, no. 2, e2215509119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2215509119

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AU - Chern, Li Ern

AU - Xu, Zhijun

AU - Winn, Barry

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AU - Stone, M. B.

AU - Kolesnikov, Alexander I.

AU - Qiu, Yiming

AU - Zhong, Ruidan

AU - Cava, Robert

AU - Kim, Yong Baek

AU - Broholm, Collin

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