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Kitaev Interactions in the Co Honeycomb Antiferromagnets Na3Co2SbO6 and Na2Co2TeO6
Published
Author(s)
M. Songvilay, J. Robert, Jose Rodriguez Rivera, William D. Ratcliff, F. Damay, V. Baledent, M. Jimenez-Ruiz, P. Lejay, E. Pachoud, A. Hadj-Azzem, V. Simonet, C. Stock
Abstract
Co2+ ions in an octahedral crystal field, stabilize a jeff = 1⁄2 ground state with an orbital degree of freedom and and have been recently put forward for realising Kitaev interactions, a prediction that we have tested by investigating spin dynamics in two cobalt honeycomb lattice compounds, Na2Co2TeO6 and Na3Co2SbO6, using inelastic neutron scattering. The measurements were performed on polycrystalline samples and modeled using linear spin wave theory. Our results show that the magnetic excitations of these compounds can be reproduced with a spin Hamiltonian including a dominant Kitaev nearest-neighbor interaction, weaker Heisenberg interactions up to the third neighbor and bond-dependent off-diagonal exchange interactions. Beyond the Kitaev interaction that alone would induce a quantum spin liquid state, the presence of these additional couplings is responsible for the zigzag-type long-range magnetic ordering observed at low temperature in both compounds. These results provide evidence for the realization of Kitaev-type coupling in cobalt-based materials, despite hosting a weaker spin-orbit coupling than their 4d and 5d counterparts.
Songvilay, M.
, Robert, J.
, Rodriguez, J.
, Ratcliff, W.
, Damay, F.
, Baledent, V.
, Jimenez-Ruiz, M.
, Lejay, P.
, Pachoud, E.
, Hadj-Azzem, A.
, Simonet, V.
and Stock, C.
(2020),
Kitaev Interactions in the Co Honeycomb Antiferromagnets Na<sub>3</sub>Co<sub>2</sub>SbO<sub>6</sub> and Na<sub>2</sub>Co<sub>2</sub>TeO<sub>6</sub>, Physical Review B
(Accessed October 10, 2025)