Spin excitations in the frustrated triangular lattice antiferromagnet NaYbO2

Mitchell M. Bordelon, Chunxiao Liu, Lorenzo Posthuma, P. M. Sarte, N. P. Butch, Daniel M. Pajerowski, Arnab Banerjee, Leon Balents, Stephen D. Wilson

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Abstract

Here we present a neutron scattering-based study of magnetic excitations and magnetic order in NaYbO2 under the application of an external magnetic field. The crystalline electric field-split J=7/2 multiplet structure is determined, revealing a mixed |mz) ground-state doublet, and is consistent with a recent report by Ding et al. [L. Ding, P. Manuel, S. Bachus, F. Grußler, P. Gegenwart, J. Singleton, R. D. Johnson, H. C. Walker, D. T. Adroja, A. D. Hillier, and A. A. Tsirlin, Phys. Rev. B 100, 144432 (2019)2469-995010.1103/PhysRevB.100.144432]. Our measurements further suggest signatures of exchange effects in the crystal-field spectrum, manifested by a small splitting in energy of the transition into the first excited doublet. The field dependence of the low-energy magnetic excitations across the transition from the quantum disordered ground state into the fluctuation-driven ordered regime is analyzed. Signs of a first-order phase transition into a noncollinear ordered state are revealed at the upper-field phase boundary of the ordered regime, and higher-order magnon scattering, suggestive of strong magnon-magnon interactions, is resolved within the previously reported up-up-down phase. Our results reveal a complex phase diagram of field-induced order and spin excitations within NaYbO2 and demonstrate the dominant role of quantum fluctuations across a broad range of fields within its interlayer frustrated triangular lattice.

Original languageEnglish
Article number224427
JournalPhysical Review B
Volume101
Issue number22
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 1 2020

Funding

This work was supported by the US Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering under Grant No. DE-SC0017752 (S.D.W. and M.B.). M.B. acknowledges partial support by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program under Grant No. 1650114. Work by L.B. and C.L. was supported by the DOE, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences under Grant No. DE-FG02-08ER46524. P.M.S. acknowledges financial support from the California Nanosystems Institute at University of California, Santa Barbara, through the Elings Fellowship. Identification of commercial equipment does not imply recommendation or endorsement by NIST. 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.

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