Direct evidence for dominant bond-directional interactions in a honeycomb lattice iridate Na                         2                         IrO                         3

Sae Hwan Chun; Jong Woo Kim; Jungho Kim; H. Zheng; Constantinos C. Stoumpos; C. D. Malliakas; J. F. Mitchell; Kavita Mehlawat; Yogesh Singh; Y. Choi; T. Gog; A. Al-Zein; M. Moretti Sala; M. Krisch; J. Chaloupka; G. Jackeli; G. Khaliullin; B. J. Kim

doi:10.1038/nphys3322

Direct evidence for dominant bond-directional interactions in a honeycomb lattice iridate Na ₂ IrO ₃

Sae Hwan Chun, Jong Woo Kim, Jungho Kim, H. Zheng, Constantinos C. Stoumpos, C. D. Malliakas, J. F. Mitchell, Kavita Mehlawat, Yogesh Singh, Y. Choi, T. Gog, A. Al-Zein, M. Moretti Sala, M. Krisch, J. Chaloupka, G. Jackeli, G. Khaliullin, B. J. Kim

Chemistry

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

366 Scopus citations

Abstract

Heisenberg interactions are ubiquitous in magnetic materials and play a central role in modelling and designing quantum magnets. Bond-directional interactions offer a novel alternative to Heisenberg exchange and provide the building blocks of the Kitaev model, which has a quantum spin liquid as its exact ground state. Honeycomb iridates, A 2 IrO 3 (A = Na, Li), offer potential realizations of the Kitaev magnetic exchange coupling, and their reported magnetic behaviour may be interpreted within the Kitaev framework. However, the extent of their relevance to the Kitaev model remains unclear, as evidence for bond-directional interactions has so far been indirect. Here we present direct evidence for dominant bond-directional interactions in antiferromagnetic Na 2 IrO 3 and show that they lead to strong magnetic frustration. Diffuse magnetic X-ray scattering reveals broken spin-rotational symmetry even above the Néel temperature, with the three spin components exhibiting short-range correlations along distinct crystallographic directions. This spin- and real-space entanglement directly uncovers the bond-directional nature of these interactions, thus providing a direct connection between honeycomb iridates and Kitaev physics.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	462-466
Number of pages	5
Journal	Nature Physics
Volume	11
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys3322
State	Published - Jun 4 2015

Funding

Work in the Materials Science Division of Argonne National Laboratory (sample preparation, characterization, and contributions to data analysis) was supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Science and Engineering Division. Use of the Advanced Photon Source, an Office of Science User Facility operated for the US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory, was supported by the US DOE under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357. K.M. acknowledges support from UGC-CSIR, India. Y.S. acknowledges DST, India for support through Ramanujan Grant #SR/S2/RJN-76/2010 and through DST grant #SB/S2/CMP-001/2013. J.C. was supported by ERDF under project CEITEC (CZ.1.05/1.1.00/02.0068) and EC 7th Framework Programme (286154/SYLICA).

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Physics and Astronomy

Access to Document

10.1038/nphys3322

Cite this

Hwan Chun, S., Kim, J. W., Kim, J., Zheng, H., Stoumpos, C. C., Malliakas, C. D., Mitchell, J. F., Mehlawat, K., Singh, Y., Choi, Y., Gog, T., Al-Zein, A., Sala, M. M., Krisch, M., Chaloupka, J., Jackeli, G., Khaliullin, G., & Kim, B. J. (2015). Direct evidence for dominant bond-directional interactions in a honeycomb lattice iridate Na ₂ IrO ₃ Nature Physics, 11(6), 462-466. https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys3322

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title = " Direct evidence for dominant bond-directional interactions in a honeycomb lattice iridate Na 2 IrO 3 ",

abstract = "Heisenberg interactions are ubiquitous in magnetic materials and play a central role in modelling and designing quantum magnets. Bond-directional interactions offer a novel alternative to Heisenberg exchange and provide the building blocks of the Kitaev model, which has a quantum spin liquid as its exact ground state. Honeycomb iridates, A 2 IrO 3 (A = Na, Li), offer potential realizations of the Kitaev magnetic exchange coupling, and their reported magnetic behaviour may be interpreted within the Kitaev framework. However, the extent of their relevance to the Kitaev model remains unclear, as evidence for bond-directional interactions has so far been indirect. Here we present direct evidence for dominant bond-directional interactions in antiferromagnetic Na 2 IrO 3 and show that they lead to strong magnetic frustration. Diffuse magnetic X-ray scattering reveals broken spin-rotational symmetry even above the N{\'e}el temperature, with the three spin components exhibiting short-range correlations along distinct crystallographic directions. This spin- and real-space entanglement directly uncovers the bond-directional nature of these interactions, thus providing a direct connection between honeycomb iridates and Kitaev physics.",

author = "{Hwan Chun}, Sae and Kim, {Jong Woo} and Jungho Kim and H. Zheng and Stoumpos, {Constantinos C.} and Malliakas, {C. D.} and Mitchell, {J. F.} and Kavita Mehlawat and Yogesh Singh and Y. Choi and T. Gog and A. Al-Zein and Sala, {M. Moretti} and M. Krisch and J. Chaloupka and G. Jackeli and G. Khaliullin and Kim, {B. J.}",

year = "2015",

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Hwan Chun, S, Kim, JW, Kim, J, Zheng, H, Stoumpos, CC, Malliakas, CD, Mitchell, JF, Mehlawat, K, Singh, Y, Choi, Y, Gog, T, Al-Zein, A, Sala, MM, Krisch, M, Chaloupka, J, Jackeli, G, Khaliullin, G & Kim, BJ 2015, ' Direct evidence for dominant bond-directional interactions in a honeycomb lattice iridate Na ₂ IrO ₃ ', Nature Physics, vol. 11, no. 6, pp. 462-466. https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys3322

Direct evidence for dominant bond-directional interactions in a honeycomb lattice iridate Na ₂ IrO ₃ . / Hwan Chun, Sae; Kim, Jong Woo; Kim, Jungho et al.
In: Nature Physics, Vol. 11, No. 6, 04.06.2015, p. 462-466.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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AU - Kim, Jong Woo

AU - Kim, Jungho

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AU - Stoumpos, Constantinos C.

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AU - Choi, Y.

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AU - Jackeli, G.

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N2 - Heisenberg interactions are ubiquitous in magnetic materials and play a central role in modelling and designing quantum magnets. Bond-directional interactions offer a novel alternative to Heisenberg exchange and provide the building blocks of the Kitaev model, which has a quantum spin liquid as its exact ground state. Honeycomb iridates, A 2 IrO 3 (A = Na, Li), offer potential realizations of the Kitaev magnetic exchange coupling, and their reported magnetic behaviour may be interpreted within the Kitaev framework. However, the extent of their relevance to the Kitaev model remains unclear, as evidence for bond-directional interactions has so far been indirect. Here we present direct evidence for dominant bond-directional interactions in antiferromagnetic Na 2 IrO 3 and show that they lead to strong magnetic frustration. Diffuse magnetic X-ray scattering reveals broken spin-rotational symmetry even above the Néel temperature, with the three spin components exhibiting short-range correlations along distinct crystallographic directions. This spin- and real-space entanglement directly uncovers the bond-directional nature of these interactions, thus providing a direct connection between honeycomb iridates and Kitaev physics.

AB - Heisenberg interactions are ubiquitous in magnetic materials and play a central role in modelling and designing quantum magnets. Bond-directional interactions offer a novel alternative to Heisenberg exchange and provide the building blocks of the Kitaev model, which has a quantum spin liquid as its exact ground state. Honeycomb iridates, A 2 IrO 3 (A = Na, Li), offer potential realizations of the Kitaev magnetic exchange coupling, and their reported magnetic behaviour may be interpreted within the Kitaev framework. However, the extent of their relevance to the Kitaev model remains unclear, as evidence for bond-directional interactions has so far been indirect. Here we present direct evidence for dominant bond-directional interactions in antiferromagnetic Na 2 IrO 3 and show that they lead to strong magnetic frustration. Diffuse magnetic X-ray scattering reveals broken spin-rotational symmetry even above the Néel temperature, with the three spin components exhibiting short-range correlations along distinct crystallographic directions. This spin- and real-space entanglement directly uncovers the bond-directional nature of these interactions, thus providing a direct connection between honeycomb iridates and Kitaev physics.

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