Abstract
Averievite, , is an oxide mineral composed of kagome layers sandwiched by honeycomb layers. We have synthesized this oxide and investigated its properties from ab initio calculations along with susceptibility and specific heat measurements. The data indicate a Curie-Weiss temperature of 185 K as well as long-range magnetic order at 24 K due to the significant interlayer coupling from the honeycomb copper ions. This order is suppressed by substituting copper by isoelectronic zinc, suggesting that Zn-substituted averievite is a promising spin liquid candidate. A further proposed substitution that replaces by not only dopes the material but is predicted to give rise to a two-dimensional electronic structure featuring Dirac crossings. As such, averievite is an attractive platform for kagome physics with the potential for realizing novel electronic states.
7 More- Received 24 August 2017
- Revised 7 July 2018
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.98.054421
©2018 American Physical Society