Role of defects in determining the magnetic ground state of ytterbium titanate

Abstract

Pyrochlore systems are ideally suited to the exploration of geometrical frustration in three dimensions, and their rich phenomenology encompasses topological order and fractional excitations. Classical spin ices provide the first context in which it is possible to control emergent magnetic monopoles, and anisotropic exchange leads to even richer behaviour associated with large quantum fluctuations. Whether the magnetic ground state of Yb2Ti2O7 is a quantum spin liquid or a ferromagnetic phase induced by a Higgs transition appears to be sample dependent. Here we have determined the role of structural defects on the magnetic ground state via the diffuse scattering of neutrons. We find that oxygen vacancies stabilise the spin liquid phase and the stuffing of Ti sites by Yb suppresses it. Samples in which the oxygen vacancies have been eliminated by annealing in oxygen exhibit a transition to a ferromagnetic phase, and this is the true magnetic ground state.

15 pages, 1 table, 4 figures, journal article

References in corpus (8)

• Lightly stuffed pyrochlore structure of single-crystalline Yb2Ti2O7 grown by the optical floating zone technique
• Disordered Route to the Coulomb Quantum Spin Liquid: Random Transverse Fields on Spin Ice in Pr${}_2$Zr${}_2$O${}_7$
• Rods of Neutron Scattering Intensity in Yb2Ti2O7: Compelling Evidence for Significant Anisotropic Exchange in a Magnetic Pyrochlore Oxide
• Structural distortion and the spin liquid state in Tb2Ti2O7
• Vacancy defects and monopole dynamics in oxygen-deficient pyrochlores
• Impact of Stoichiometry of Yb2Ti2O7 on its Physical Properties
• Structural Disorder and Properties of the Stuffed Pyrochlore Ho2TiO5
• Magnetic Excitations in the Ground State of $\mathrm{Y}{\mathrm{b}}_2\mathrm{T}{\mathrm{i}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_7$

Cited by in corpus (14)

• Multiphase Magnetism in Yb2Ti2O7
• Efficient first-principles methodology for the calculation of the all-phonon inelastic scattering in solids
• Crystal-field states and defect levels in candidate quantum spin ice Ce${}_2$Hf${}_2$O${}_7$
• Disorder-induced broadening of the spin waves in a triangular-lattice quantum-spin-liquid candidate YbZnGaO${}_4$
• Spin texture induced by non-magnetic doping and spin dynamics in 2D triangular lattice antiferromagnet h-Y(Mn,Al)O3
• Nanoscale degeneracy lifting in a geometrically frustrated antiferromagnet
• Valence bond glass state in the 4$d^1$ fcc antiferromagnet Ba${}_2$LuMoO${}_6$
• Dynamical scaling as a signature of multiple phase competition in Yb${}_2$Ti${}_2$O${}_7$
• Evaluating the Effects of Structural Disorder on the Magnetic Properties of Nd${}_2$Zr${}_2$O${}_7$
• Orientation Dependence of the Magnetic Phase Diagram of Yb${}_2$Ti${}_2$O${}_7$
• Traversing the pyrochlore stability diagram; microwave-assisted synthesis and discovery of mixed B-site Ln${}_2$InSbO${}_7$ family
• Magnetic-field-induced tunability of spin Hamiltonians: Resonances and Efimov states in Yb${}_2$Ti${}_2$O${}_7$
• Analytical theory of pyrochlore cooperative paramagnets
• Defect-induced spin textures in magnetic solids