Phase Diagram of YbZnGaO4 in Applied Magnetic Field

Published

September 15, 2021

Author(s)

William Steinhardt, P. A. Maksimov, Sachith Dissanayake, Zhenzhong Shi, Nicholas Butch, David Graf, Andrey Podlesnyak, Yaohua Liu, Yang Zhao, Guangyong Xu, Jeffrey Lynn, Casey Marjerrison, A. L. Chernyshev, Sara Haravifard

Abstract

Recently, Yb-based triangular lattice antiferromagnets have garnered significant interest as possible quantum spin liquid candidates. One example is YbMgGaO₄, which showed many promising spin liquid features, but also possesses a high degree of disorder owing to site-mixing between the non-magnetic cations. To further elucidate role of chemical disorder and to explore phase diagram of these materials in applied field, we present neutron scattering and sensitive magnetometry measurements of the closely related compound, YbZnGaO₄. We use key observations of the magnetic phase crossover to motivate an exploration of the field- and parameter-dependent phase diagram, providing an expanded view of the available magnetic states in applied field. This enriched map of the phase space serves as a basis to meaningfully restrict the values of parameters describing magnetic Hamiltonian with broad application to recently discovered related materials.

Citation

Nature Partner Journals Quantum Materials

Volume

6

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

Spin Liquid, triangular Lattice Antiferromagnet, YbZnGaO4, neutron scattering, Magnetization

Citation

Steinhardt, W. , Maksimov, P. , Dissanayake, S. , Shi, Z. , Butch, N. , Graf, D. , Podlesnyak, A. , Liu, Y. , Zhao, Y. , Xu, G. , Lynn, J. , Marjerrison, C. , Chernyshev, A. and Haravifard, S. (2021), Phase Diagram of YbZnGaO₄ in Applied Magnetic Field, Nature Partner Journals Quantum Materials (Accessed October 21, 2025)