ISIS Neutron and Muon Source Data Journal

Ground state of the layered triangular antiferromagnet YbZnGaO4

Abstract: YbMgGaO4 and YbZnGaO4 are recently discovered triangular antiferromagnets , which contain quasi-2D layers of Yb3+ ions. These ions experience strong spin orbit coupling and have an effective spin of 1/2. YbMgGaO4 has been proposed to be the first candidate system for a quantum spin liquid state with strong spin orbit coupling and experiments indicate that it indeed remains disordered down to 60 mK, while also exhibiting antiferromagnetic correlations. However, recent theoretical calculations suggest that it in fact adapts a stripe-ordered state which mimics a spin-liquid state. YbZnGaO4 is an ideal candidate to test this scenario: it is isostructural to YbMgGaO4 but the substitution of Mg2+ with Zn2+ may reduce the effect of disorder due to the closer match of ionic radii and electronic configuration with the Ga3+ ions. Muons are ideal in probing the properties of this new material.

Principal Investigator: Dr Franz Lang
Local Contact: Dr Francis Pratt
Experimenter: Professor Stephen Blundell
Experimenter: Dr John Wilkinson
Experimenter: Mr William Steinhardt
Experimenter: Professor Sara Haravifard

DOI: 10.5286/ISIS.E.RB1920344

ISIS Experiment Number: RB1920344

Publisher: STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source

Data format: RAW/Nexus
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Data Citation

The recommended format for citing this dataset in a research publication is as:
[author], [date], [title], [publisher], [doi]

For Example:
Dr Franz Lang et al; (2021): Ground state of the layered triangular antiferromagnet YbZnGaO4, STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, https://doi.org/10.5286/ISIS.E.RB1920344

Data is released under the CC-BY-4.0 license.