Observation of the spiral spin liquid in a triangular-lattice material.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 40097389.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-025-57319-2 and PMC identifier 11914452.
- 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 spiral spin liquid (SSL) is a highly degenerate state characterized by a continuous contour or surface in reciprocal space spanned by a spiral propagation vector. Although the SSL state has been predicted in a number of various theoretical models, very few materials are so far experimentally identified to host such a state. Via combined single-crystal wide-angle and small-angle neutron scattering, we report observation of the SSL in the quasi-two-dimensional delafossite-like AgCrSe<sub>2</sub>. We show that it is a very close realization of the ideal Heisenberg J<sub>1</sub>-J<sub>2</sub>-J<sub>3</sub> frustrated model on the triangular lattice. By supplementing our experimental results with microscopic spin-dynamics simulations, we demonstrate how such exotic magnetic states are driven by thermal fluctuations and exchange frustration.