Experimental signatures of a quantum spin liquid: the case of neodymium heptatantalate

by Dr Tina Arh (Jožef Stefan Institute)

Monday 10 Jul 2023, 14:00 → 15:00 Europe/Zurich

SZ-WBGB/020

A quantum spin liquid is a magnetically disordered phase of matter that shows quantum behaviour at the macroscopic scale [1]. Despite that, the existence of such a phase is notoriously hard to prove experimentally. Recently, our efforts in this area have been focused on a family of rare-earth heptatantalates that crystallize into layers of magnetic ions on a triangular lattice. On such a lattice, geometrical frustration drives the system towards a disordered state. I will present some recent results [2] which suggest that neodymium heptatantalate NdTa₇O₁₉ hosts a quantum spin liquid state with the exchange interaction characterized by strong Ising anisotropy.

References
[1] Y. Li, P. Gegenwart, and A.A. Tsirlin, Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter 32, 224004 (2020).
[2] T. Arh, B. Sana, M. Pregelj, P. Khuntia, Z. Jagličić, M. D. Le, P. K. Biswas, P. Manuel, L. Magin-Thro, A. Ozarowski, and A. Zorko, Nature Materials 21, 416 (2022).