Frustrated magnetism in the Heisenberg pyrochlore antiferromagnets $A$Yb${}_2$$X$${}_4$ ($A$ = Cd, Mg, $X$ = S, Se)

Abstract

Our polycrystalline sample study on the Yb-based chalcogenide spinels $A$Yb${}_2$$X_4$ ($A=$ Cd, Mg, $X=$ S, Se) has revealed frustrated magnetism due to the antiferromagnetically coupled Heisenberg spin on the pyrochlore lattice. Our crystal electric field analysis indicates the Yb ground state has nearly Heisenberg spins with a strong quantum character of the ground doublet. All the materials exhibit an antiferromagnetic order at 1.4-1.8 K, much lower temperature than the antiferromagnetic exchange coupling scale of $\sim 10$ K. The magnetic specific heat $C_{\mathrm{M}}$ shows a $T^3$ dependence, indicating the gapless feature in the Yb-based chalcogenide spinels. The magnetic entropy change much smaller than $R$ ln 2 below the Néel temperature and the small local magnetic field estimated from the $\mu$SR measurements strongly suggest the significantly reduced size of the ordered moment in comparison with the bare moment size 1.33 ${\mu }_{\mathrm{B}}$/Yb supporting strong fluctuations in the commensurate and incommensurate ordered states in CdYb${}_2$S${}_4$ and MgYb${}_2$S${}_4$, respectively.

7 pages, 6 figures

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