Emergent spin-gapped magnetization plateaus in a spin-1/2 perfect kagome antiferromagnet
Abstract: The two-dimensional (2D) spin-1/2 kagome Heisenberg antiferromagnet is believed to host quantum spin liquid (QSL) states with no magnetic order, but its ground state remains largely elusive. An important outstanding question concerns the presence or absence of the 1/9 magnetization plateau, where exotic quantum states, including topological ones, are expected to emerge. Here we report the magnetization of a recently discovered kagome QSL candidate YCu$3$(OH)${6.5}$Br$_{2.5}$ up to 57 T. Above 50 T, a clear magnetization plateau at 1/3 of the saturation moment of Cu${2+}$ ions is observed, supporting that this material provides an ideal platform for the kagome Heisenberg antiferromagnet. Remarkably, we found another magnetization plateau around 20 T, which is attributed to the 1/9 plateau. The temperature dependence of this plateau reveals the distinct spin gap, whose magnitude estimated by the plateau width is approximately 10% of the exchange interaction. The observation of 1/9 and 1/3 plateaus highlights the emergence of novel states in quantum spin systems.
- S. Sachdev, Phys. Rev. B 45, 12377 (1992).
- L. Balents, Nature 464, 199 (2010).
- S. Yan, D. A. Huse, and S. R. White, Science 332, 1173 (2011).
- A. M. Läuchli, J. Sudan, and R. Moessner, Phys. Rev. B 100, 155142 (2019).
- S. Nishimoto, N. Shibata, and C. Hotta, Nat. Commun. 4, 2287 (2013).
- J. Schnack, J. Schulenburg, and J. Richter, Phys. Rev. B 98, 094423 (2018).
- A. Chubukov and D. Golosov, J. Phys. Condens. Matter 3, 69 (1991).
- P. Mendels and F. Bert, J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 79, 011001 (2010).
- M. R. Norman, Rev. Mod. Phys. 88, 041002 (2016).
- R. Okuma, D. Nakamura, and S. Takeyama, Phys. Rev. B 102, 104429 (2020).
Paper Prompts
Sign up for free to create and run prompts on this paper using GPT-5.
Top Community Prompts
Collections
Sign up for free to add this paper to one or more collections.