Kitaev spin liquid candidate Os_xCl₃comprised of honeycomb nano-domains

authored by

Kota Kataoka, Daigoro Hirai, Takeshi Yajima, Daisuke Nishio-Hamane, Rieko Ishii, Kwang Yong Choi, Dirk Wulferding, Peter Lemmens, Shunichiro Kittaka, Toshiro Sakakibara, Hajime Ishikawa, Akira Matsuo, Koichi Kindo, Zenji Hiroi

Abstract

An osmium chloride with the chemical formula of OsxCl3 (x = 0.81) was synthesized and its crystal structure and thermodynamic properties were investigated. OsxCl3 crystallizes in a layered CdCl2-type structure with the triangular lattice partially occupied by Os ions on average. However, on microscopic length scales, the triangular lattice is composed of nano-domains with a honeycomb arrangement of Os ions, as observed by electron microscopy and Raman scattering experiments. Magnetization and heat capacity measurements revealed an absence of magnetic long-range order down to 0.08 K, while a broad peak in heat capacity at 0.15K may indicate a short-range order in the local honeycomb lattice. OsxCl3 may exhibit certain aspects of the Kitaev spin liquid that are expected for a perfect honeycomb lattice of osmium trichloride.

External Organisation(s)

University of Tokyo
Chung-Ang University
Technische Universität Braunschweig
Institute for Basic Science
Chuo University

Type

Article

Journal

Journal of the Physical Society of Japan

Volume

89

ISSN

0031-9015

Publication date

15.11.2020

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Physics and Astronomy(all)

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.7566/JPSJ.89.114709 (Access: Unknown)