Abstract
Here we present the discovery and characterization of a series of antimonides Ln2Ti9Sb11 (Ln: La–Nd) that exhibit well-isolated, n=2 rare-earth spin ladders. We discuss the structure of these compounds, with a particular focus on the magnetic Ln spin ladders. Nd2Ti9Sb11 and Ce2Ti9Sb11 exhibit antiferromagnetic interactions and a well-defined doublet ground state, whereas Pr2Ti9Sb11 exhibits a weakly magnetic singlet ground state. Nd2Ti9Sb11 is a poor metal with an electrical resistivity of 0.1mΩcm at 300 K and weak temperature dependence. The thermal conductivity along the ladder exhibits significant field dependence even at 40 K, considerably higher than the magnetic ordering temperature of 1.1 K. Compared to compounds with transition metal spin ladders, the rare-earth elements impart much lower energy scales, making these compounds highly tunable with external stimuli like magnetic fields. The diverse magnetism of the rare-earth ions and Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida interactions further contribute to the potential for a wide array of rich magnetic ground states, positioning these materials as a rare example of an inorganic square spin-ladder platform.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 086203 |
| Journal | Physical Review Materials |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue number | 8 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Aug 8 2025 |
Funding
The authors thank Professor Ramesh Nath for his helpful discussions. This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences (BES), Materials Sciences and Engineering Division. This research used resources of the Compute and Data Environment for Science (CADES) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725. Research conducted at the Center for High-Energy X-ray Sciences (CHEXS) is supported by the NSF (BIO, ENG, and MPS Directorates) under award DMR-2342336. This work has been partially supported by U.S. DOE Grant No. DE-FG02-13ER41967. ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 for the U.S. Department of Energy. The U.S. Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the U.S. Government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for U.S. government purposes. The DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan . The authors thank Professor Ramesh Nath for his helpful discussions. This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences (BES), Materials Sciences and Engineering Division. This research used resources of the Compute and Data Environment for Science (CADES) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725. Research conducted at the Center for High-Energy X-ray Sciences (CHEXS) is supported by the NSF (BIO, ENG, and MPS Directorates) under award DMR-2342336. This work has been partially supported by U.S. DOE Grant No. DE-FG02-13ER41967. ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 for the U.S. Department of Energy. The U.S. Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the U.S. Government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for U.S. government purposes. The DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan [55].