Critical spin liquid versus valence-bond glass in a triangular-lattice organic antiferromagnet.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 31189897.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-019-10604-3 and PMC identifier 6561973.
- 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
In the quest for materials with unconventional quantum phases, the organic triangular-lattice antiferromagnet κ-(ET)<sub>2</sub>Cu<sub>2</sub>(CN)<sub>3</sub> has been extensively discussed as a quantum spin liquid (QSL) candidate. The description of its low temperature properties has become, however, a particularly challenging task. Recently, an intriguing quantum critical behaviour was suggested from low-temperature magnetic torque experiments. Here we highlight significant deviations of the experimental observations from a quantum critical scenario by performing a microscopic analysis of all anisotropic contributions, including Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya and multi-spin scalar chiral interactions. Instead, we show that disorder-induced spin defects provide a comprehensive explanation of the low-temperature properties. These spins are attributed to valence bond defects that emerge spontaneously as the QSL enters a valence-bond glass phase at low temperature. This theoretical treatment is applicable to a general class of frustrated magnetic systems and has important implications for the interpretation of magnetic torque, nuclear magnetic resonance, thermal transport and thermodynamic experiments.