Magnetic-field induced melting of long-range magnetic order akin to Kitaev insulators in the metallic compound Tb5Si3

Abstract

There have been constant efforts to find exotic quantum spin-liquid (QSL) materials. Some of the transition metal insulators dominated by the direction dependent anisotropic exchange interaction (Kitaev model for honeycomb network of magnetic ions) are considered to be promising cases for the same. In such Kitaev insulators, QSL is achieved from the zero-field antiferromagnetic state by the application of magnetic field, suppressing other exchange interactions responsible for magnetic order. Here, we show that the features attributable to long-range magnetic ordering of the intermetallic compound, Tb5Si3 (T_N= 69 K), containing honey-comb network of Tb ions, are completely suppressed by a critical applied field, H_cr, in heat-capacity and magnetization data, mimicking the behavior of Kitaev physics candidates. The neutron diffraction patterns as a function of H reveal that it is an incommensurate magnetic structure that gets suppressed, showing peaks arising from multiple wave vectors beyond Hcr. Increasing magnetic entropy as a function of H with a peak in the magnetically ordered state is in support of some kind of magnetic disorder in a narrow field range after H_cr. Such a high-field behavior for a metallic heavy rare-earth system to our knowledge has not been reported in the past and therefore is intriguing.

arXiv commentJournal of Physics: Condensed Matter, in press

References in corpus (29)

• Anyons in an exactly solved model and beyond
• Mott Insulators in the Strong Spin-Orbit Coupling Limit: From Heisenberg to a Quantum Compass and Kitaev Models
• Quantum Spin Liquid States
• $\alpha$-RuCl3: a Spin-Orbit Assisted Mott Insulator on a Honeycomb Lattice
• Relevance of the Heisenberg-Kitaev model for the honeycomb lattice iridates A_2IrO_3
• Neutron tomography of magnetic Majorana fermions in a proximate quantum spin liquid
• Orbital order and fluctuations in Mott insulators
• Evidence for a Field-induced Quantum Spin Liquid in $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$
• Long range magnetic ordering in Na${}_2$IrO${}_3$
• Successive magnetic phase transitions in $\mathbf{\alpha }$-RuCl${}_3$: XY-like frustrated magnet on the honeycomb lattice
• Phase Diagram of $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$ in an in-plane Magnetic Field
• Field-induced quantum criticality in the Kitaev system $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$
• Field-induced quantum spin disordered state in spin-1/2 honeycomb magnet Na2Co2TeO6
• Spin-S Kitaev model: Classical Ground States, Order by Disorder and Exact Correlation Functions
• Antiferromagnetic Kitaev Interaction in $f$-Electron Based Honeycomb Magnets
• Kitaev materials beyond iridates: order by quantum disorder and Weyl magnons in rare-earth double perovskites
• Supercooling across first-order phase transitions in vortex matter
• Computational design of $f$-electron Kitaev magnets: honeycomb and hyperhoneycomb compounds $A_2$PrO${}_3$ ($A=$ alkali metals)
• Magnetic anisotropy of the alkali iridate Na${}_2$IrO${}_3$ at high magnetic fields: evidence for strong ferromagnetic Kitaev correlations
• Ground-state phase diagram of spin-$S$ Kitaev-Heisenberg models
• Raman Signatures of Strong Kitaev Exchange Correlations in (Na${}_{1-x}$Li${}_x$)${}_2$IrO${}_3$ : Experiments and Theory
• Probing signatures of fractionalization in candidate quantum spin liquid Cu2IrO3 via anomalous Raman scattering
• An anomalous butterfly-shaped magnetoresistance loop in an alloy, Tb4LuSi3
• Sharp fall of electrical resistance for a small application of magnetic field on a metastable form of a compound, Tb5Si3, under pressure
• Influence of pressure on the magnetic behavior and the anomalous magnetoresistance in Tb5Si3
• Thermal Hall conductivity of $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$
• Order by singularity in Kitaev clusters
• Magnetic anomalies in single crystalline Tb5Si3
• Isothermal magnetic entropy behavior in Tb5Si3: Sign reversal and non-monotonic variation with temperature, and implications