A Geometrically Frustrated Trimer-Based Mott Insulator

Abstract

The crystal structure of Ba4NbRu3O12 is based on triangular planes of elongated Ru3O12 trimers oriented perpendicular to the plane. We report that it is semiconducting, that its Weiss temperature and effective magnetic moment are -155 K and 2.59 μB/f.u. respectively, and that magnetic susceptibility and specific heat data indicate that it exhibits magnetic ordering near 4 K. The presence of a high density of low energy states is evidenced by a substantial Sommerfeld-like T-linear term (gamma = 31(2) mJ/mole-K^2) in the specific heat. Electronic structure calculations reveal that the electronic states at the Fermi Energy reside on the Ru3O12 trimers and that the calculated density of electronic states is high and continuous around the Fermi Energy - in other words density functional theory calculates the material to be a metal. Our results imply that Ba4NbRu3O12 is a geometrically frustrated trimer-based Mott insulator.

arXiv comment25 pages, 10 figures "to be published in Physical Review Materials"

References in corpus (7)

• Superconductivity in Ca1-xLaxFeAs2: A Novel 112-Type Iron Pnictide with Arsenic Zigzag Bonds
• Covalent bonds against magnetism in transition metal compounds
• Electronic correlations, magnetism and Hund's rule coupling in the ruthenium perovskites SrRuO${}_3$ and CaRuO${}_3$
• Thermodynamic properties of the Yb2Ti2O7 pyrochlore as a function of temperature and magnetic field: validation of a quantum spin ice exchange Hamiltonian
• Frustrated spin-1/2 molecular magnetism in the mixed-valence antiferromagnets Ba3MRu2O9 (M = In, Y, Lu)
• A new family of iron pnictides: BaFeAs2 and BaFeSb2
• Multiferroicity in Geometrically Frustrated α-MCr_2O_4 systems (M=Ca, Sr, Ba)

Cited by in corpus (16)

• Orbital effects in solids: basics, recent progress and opportunities
• Hexagonal Perovskites as Quantum Materials
• The trimer-based spin liquid candidate Ba4NbIr3O12
• Trimers of MnO6 octahedra and ferrimagnetism of Ba4NbMn3O12
• Three-site transition-metal clusters: going from localized electrons to molecular orbitals
• Long-range and local crystal structures of the Sr1-xCaxRuO3 Perovskites
• Crystal Growth of Spin-Frustrated Ba4Nb0.8Ir3.2O12: A Possible Spin Liquid Material
• Partial molecular orbitals in face-sharing 3$d$ manganese trimer: Comparative studies on Ba${}_4$TaMn${}_3$O${}_{12}$ and Ba${}_4$NbMn${}_3$O${}_{12}$
• Multiple insulating phases due to the interplay of strong correlations and lattice geometry in a single-orbital Hubbard model
• Novel quantum spin liquid ground state in the trimer rhodate Ba${}_4$NbRh${}_3$O${}_{12}$
• Gapless dynamic magnetic ground state in the charge-gapped trimer iridate Ba${}_4$NbIr${}_3$O${}_{12}$
• Transition between heavy-fermion strange metal and quantum spin liquid in a 4d-electron trimer lattice
• Complex magnetic structure in Ba5Ru3O12 with isolated Ru3O12-trimer
• Widely Spaced Planes of Magnetic Dimers in the Ba6Y2Rh2Ti2O17-δ Hexagonal Perovskite
• Interplay between trimer structure and magnetic ground state in Ba5Ru3O12 probed by Neutron and muSR techniques
• Cluster Spin Glass State in Ba${}_3$Sb${}_{1+x}$Co${}_{2-x}$O${}_{9-\delta }$: Cation Disorder and Mixed-Valence Co Dimers