• Letter

Evidence for the random singlet phase in the honeycomb iridate SrIr2O6

Pengbo Song, Kejia Zhu, Fan Yang, Yuan Wei, Lu Zhang, Huaixin Yang, Xian-Lei Sheng, Yang Qi, Jiamin Ni, Shiyan Li, Yanchun Li, Guanghan Cao, Zi Yang Meng, Wei Li, Youguo Shi, and Shiliang Li
Phys. Rev. B 103, L241114 – Published 23 June 2021

Abstract

Strong spin-orbital-coupling magnetic systems with the honeycomb structure can provide bond-directional interactions which may result in Kitaev quantum spin liquids and exotic anyonic excitations. However, one of the key ingredients in real materials—disorders—has been much less studied in Kitaev systems. Here we synthesized a trigonal SrIr2O6δ with δ0.25, which consists of two-dimensional honeycomb Ir planes with edge-sharing IrO6 octahedra. First-principles computation and experimental measurements suggest that the electronic system is gapped, and there should be no magnetic moment as the Ir5+ ion has no unpaired electrons. However, significant magnetism has been observed in the material, and it can be attributed to disorders that are most likely from oxygen vacancies. No magnetic order is found down to 0.05 K, and the low-temperature magnetic properties exhibit power-law behaviors in magnetic susceptibility and zero-field specific heat, and a single-parameter scaling of the specific heat under magnetic fields. These results provide strong evidence for the existence of the random singlet phase in SrIr2O6δ, which offers a different member to the family of spin-orbital entangled iridates and Kitaev materials.

  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Received 11 March 2021
  • Revised 8 June 2021
  • Accepted 8 June 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.103.L241114

©2021 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Pengbo Song1,2,3,*, Kejia Zhu4,1,*, Fan Yang5,*, Yuan Wei1,3, Lu Zhang1,3, Huaixin Yang1,3,6, Xian-Lei Sheng5, Yang Qi7,8, Jiamin Ni8, Shiyan Li8, Yanchun Li9, Guanghan Cao10,11,12, Zi Yang Meng1,13, Wei Li5,14, Youguo Shi1,2,15,†, and Shiliang Li1,3,15,‡

  • 1Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
  • 2Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
  • 3School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
  • 4School of Physics and Materials Science, Anhui University, Hefei, Anhui 230601, China
  • 5School of Physics, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
  • 6Yangtze River Delta Physics Research Center Co., Ltd., Liyang, Jiangsu 213300, China
  • 7Center for Field Theory and Particle Physics, Department of Physics, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
  • 8State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics, Department of Physics, Fudan University, Shanghai 200438, China
  • 9Multidiscipline Research Center, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing 100049, China
  • 10Department of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
  • 11Zhejiang Province Key Laboratory of Quantum Technology and Devices, Interdisciplinary Center for Quantum Information and State Key Lab of Silicon Materials, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
  • 12Collaborative Innovation Centre of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China
  • 13Department of Physics and HKU-UCAS Joint Institute of Theoretical and Computational Physics, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China
  • 14International Research Institute of Multidisciplinary Science, Beihang University, Being 100191, China
  • 15Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, Dongguan, Guangdong 523808, China

  • *These authors contributed equally to this work.
  • ygshi@iphy.ac.cn
  • slli@iphy.ac.cn

Article Text (Subscription Required)

Click to Expand

References (Subscription Required)

Click to Expand
Issue

Vol. 103, Iss. 24 — 15 June 2021

Reuse & Permissions
Access Options
Author publication services for translation and copyediting assistance advertisement

Authorization Required


×
×

Images

×

Sign up to receive regular email alerts from Physical Review B

Log In

Cancel
×

Search


Article Lookup

Paste a citation or DOI

Enter a citation
×