Abstract
As a candidate Kitaev material, Na2Co2TeO6 exhibits intriguing magnetism on a honeycomb lattice that is believed to be C3 symmetric. Here we report a neutron diffraction study of high-quality single crystals under a-axis magnetic fields. Our data support the less common notion of a magnetic ground state that corresponds to a triple-q magnetic structure with C3 symmetry, rather than the multidomain zigzag structure typically assumed in prototype Kitaev spin liquid candidates. In particular, we find that the field is unable to repopulate the supposed zigzag domains, where the only alternative explanation is that the domains are strongly pinned by hitherto unidentified structural reasons. If the triple-q structure is correct, then this requires reevaluation of many candidate Kitaev materials. We also find that fields beyond about 10 Tesla suppress the long-range antiferromagnetic order, allowing magnetic behavior to emerge different from that expected for a spin liquid.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | L022045 |
| Journal | Physical Review Research |
| Volume | 5 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Apr 2023 |
Funding
We are grateful for discussions with L. Chen, W. Chen, C. Hess, X. Hong, L. Janssen, X. Jin, D. Khalyavin, C. Kim, V. Kocsis, W. G. F. Krüger, J.-G. Park, L. Taillefer, and A. U. B. Wolter. The work at Peking University was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2021YFA1401900) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants No. 12061131004 and No. 11888101). 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 National Science Foundation under Agreement No. DMR-1508249. We acknowledge ISIS for beam time under Proposal No. RB2010025 .