Emergent order in the kagome Ising magnet Dy<sub>3</sub>Mg<sub>2</sub>Sb<sub>3</sub>O<sub>14</sub>.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 27996012.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/ncomms13842 and PMC identifier 5187434.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
The Ising model-in which degrees of freedom (spins) are binary valued (up/down)-is a cornerstone of statistical physics that shows rich behaviour when spins occupy a highly frustrated lattice such as kagome. Here we show that the layered Ising magnet Dy<sub>3</sub>Mg<sub>2</sub>Sb<sub>3</sub>O<sub>14</sub> hosts an emergent order predicted theoretically for individual kagome layers of in-plane Ising spins. Neutron-scattering and bulk thermomagnetic measurements reveal a phase transition at ∼0.3 K from a disordered spin-ice-like regime to an emergent charge ordered state, in which emergent magnetic charge degrees of freedom exhibit three-dimensional order while spins remain partially disordered. Monte Carlo simulations show that an interplay of inter-layer interactions, spin canting and chemical disorder stabilizes this state. Our results establish Dy<sub>3</sub>Mg<sub>2</sub>Sb<sub>3</sub>O<sub>14</sub> as a tuneable system to study interacting emergent charges arising from kagome Ising frustration.