Understanding Spin Configuration in the Geometrically Frustrated Magnet TbB${}_4$: a Resonant Soft X-ray Scattering Study

Abstract

The frustrated magnet has been regarded as a system that could be a promising host material for the quantum spin liquid (QSL). However, it is difficult to determine the spin configuration and the corresponding mechanism in this system, because of its geometrical frustration (i.e., crystal structure and symmetry). Herein, we systematically investigate one of the geometrically frustrated magnets, the TbB${}_4$ compound. Using resonant soft x-ray scattering (RSXS), we explored its spin configuration, as well as Tb's quadrupole. Comprehensive evaluations of the temperature and photon energy / polarization dependences of the RSXS signals reveal the mechanism of spin reorientation upon cooling down, which is the sophisticated interplay between the Tb spin and the crystal symmetry rather than its orbit (quadrupole). Our results and their implications would further shed a light on the search for possible realization of QSL.

References in corpus (9)

• Quantum Spin Liquid States
• Spin Liquid Ground State of the $S=1/2$ Kagome Heisenberg Model
• Gapless spin-liquid ground state in the $S=1/2$ kagome antiferromagnet
• Evidence for a Gapped Spin-Liquid Ground State in a Kagome Heisenberg Antiferromagnet
• Magnetic Superstructure in the Two-Dimensional Quantum Antiferromagnet SrCu2(BO3)2
• Controlling frustrated liquids and solids with an applied field in a kagome Heisenberg antiferromagnet
• Numerical study of magnetization plateaux in the spin-1/2 kagome Heisenberg antiferromagnet
• Quadrupolar Frustration in Shastry-Sutherland Lattice of DyB4 Studied by Resonant X-ray Scattering
• Neutron Scattering and Its Application to Strongly Correlated Systems