A series of magnon crystals appearing under ultrahigh magnetic fields in a kagomé antiferromagnet

Abstract

Search for a new quantum state of matter emerging in a crystal is one of recent trends in condensed matter physics. For magnetic materials, geometrical frustration and high magnetic field are two key ingredients to realize it: a conventional magnetic order is possibly destroyed by competing interactions (frustration) and is replaced by an exotic state that is characterized in terms of quasiparticles, that are magnons, and the magnetic field can control the density and chemical potential of the magnons. Here we show that a synthetic copper mineral, Cd-kapellasite, comprising a kagome lattice made of corner-sharing triangles of Cu2+ ions carrying spin-1/2 exhibits an unprecedented series of fractional magnetization plateaux in ultrahigh magnetic fields up to 160 T, which may be interpreted as crystallizations of emergent magnons localized on the hexagon of the kagome lattice. Our observation reveals a novel type of particle physics realized in a highly frustrated magnet.

9 pages, 10 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Classical simulation of infinite-size quantum lattice systems in two spatial dimensions
• Bose-Einstein Condensation in Magnetic Insulators
• Accurate determination of tensor network state of quantum lattice models in two dimensions
• Valence Bond Solids for Quantum Computation
• Weak ferromagnetic order breaking the threefold rotational symmetry of the underlying kagomé lattice in CdCu${}_3$(OH)${}_6$(NO${}_3$)${}_2\cdot$H${}_2$O

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Magnetization Plateau Observed by Ultra-High Field Faraday Rotation in a Kagomé Antiferromagnet Herbertsmithite
• Melting of magnetization plateaus for kagome and square-kagome lattice antiferromagnets
• Colorful points in the XY regime of XXZ quantum magnets
• Anisotropic Triangular Lattice Realized in Rhenium Oxychlorides A3ReO5Cl2 (A = Ba and Sr)
• Nematicity and fractional magnetization plateaus induced by spin-lattice coupling in the classical kagome-lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnet
• Field-selective classical spin liquid and magnetization plateaus on kagome lattice
• Emergence of Frustrated Short-Range Order above Long-Range Order in the $S=1/2$ Kagome Antiferromagnet CaCu${}_3$(OD)${}_6$Cl${}_2\cdot 0.6$D${}_2$O