Discovery of quantum phases in the Shastry-Sutherland compound SrCu<sub>2</sub>(BO<sub>3</sub>)<sub>2</sub> under extreme conditions of field and pressure.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 35484351.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-022-30036-w and PMC identifier 9050886.
- 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 2-dimensional layered oxide material SrCu<sub>2</sub>(BO<sub>3</sub>)<sub>2</sub>, long studied as a realization of the Shastry-Sutherland spin topology, exhibits a range of intriguing physics as a function of both hydrostatic pressure and magnetic field, with a still debated intermediate plaquette phase appearing at approximately 20 kbar and a possible deconfined critical point at higher pressure. Here, we employ a tunnel diode oscillator (TDO) technique to probe the behavior in the combined extreme conditions of high pressure, high magnetic field, and low temperature. We reveal an extensive phase space consisting of multiple magnetic analogs of the elusive supersolid phase and a magnetization plateau. In particular, a 10 × 2 supersolid and a 1/5 plateau, identified by infinite Projected Entangled Pair States (iPEPS) calculations, are found to rely on the presence of both magnetic and non-magnetic particles in the sea of dimer singlets. These states are best understood as descendants of the full-plaquette phase, the leading candidate for the intermediate phase of SrCu<sub>2</sub>(BO<sub>3</sub>)<sub>2</sub>.