Materializing Rival Ground States in the Barlowite Family of Kagome Magnets: Quantum Spin Liquid, Spin Ordered, and Valence Bond Crystal States

Published

April 14, 2020

Author(s)

Rebecca W. Smaha, Wei He, Jack Mingde Jiang, JiaJia Wen, Yi-Fan Jiang, John P. Sheckelton, Charles J. Titus, Suyin Grass Wang, Yu-Sheng Chen, Simon J. Teat, Adam A. Aczel, Yang Zhao, Guangyong Xu, Jeffrey W. Lynn, Hong-Chen Jiang, Young S. Lee

Abstract

Quantum magnet display exotic phases that may be strongly influenced by small differences in structure and composition. Comprehensive structural and magnetic measurements (involving x-ray scattering, neutron scattering, and thermodynamic techniques) were performed on newly synthesized variants of barlowite (Cu₄(OH)₆FBr) and Zn-substituted barlowite. In contrast to orthorhombic Pnma barlowite, a novel single crystalline variant of barlowite has been synthesized with a less drastic symmetry lowering to hexagonal P6₃/m. The lesser amount of symmetry breaking results in an overall smaller ordered moment compared to orthorhombic barlowite, moving the hexagonal sample closer to a quantum spin liquid ground state. Sizable single crystals of Zn-substituted barlowite (Cu_3.44Zn_0.56(OH)₆FBr) were successfully grown, and no structural transition is observed down to T=0.1 K, consistent with a quantum spin liquid ground state. The magnetic response is compared to Cu_3.05Zn_0.95(OH)FBr (powder) and herbertsmithite (powder and crystal). These samples span a spectrum of quantum spin liquidness, allowing this exotic ground state to be probed systematically.

Citation

Nature Partner Journals Quantum Materials

Volume

5

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

Spin Liquid candidate, neutron diffraction, Cu4(OH)6FBr, barlowite, x-ray diffraction, crystal structure, magnetic structure, bulk properties

Citation

Smaha, R. , He, W. , Jiang, J. , Wen, J. , Jiang, Y. , Sheckelton, J. , Titus, C. , Wang, S. , Chen, Y. , Teat, S. , Aczel, A. , Zhao, Y. , Xu, G. , Lynn, J. , Jiang, H. and Lee, Y. (2020), Materializing Rival Ground States in the Barlowite Family of Kagome Magnets: Quantum Spin Liquid, Spin Ordered, and Valence Bond Crystal States, Nature Partner Journals Quantum Materials, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=927877 (Accessed October 13, 2025)