ISIS Neutron and Muon Source Data Journal

Excitation spectrum in frustrated S=1/2 Ising honeycomb-lattice magnets

Abstract: The rare-earth magnet family RZnPO with R = Nd, Ce realises a rare experimental example of a frustrated honeycomb S=1/2 antiferromagnet with strong Ising anisotropy. Honeycomb R3+ layers are well isolated in the crystal structure, where frustration arises from a J1-J2 exchange model, with competing nearest and next-nearest interactions. In addition, the crystal electric field isolates a doublet ground state, due to the Kramers nature of R3+ ions, and endows the system with marked easy-axis magnetic anisotropy. The frustration pattern results in significantly different antiferromagnetic ground states for NdZnPO and CeZnPO. We reliably synthesised polycrystal samples of this system, and we propose the use of powder inelastic low-energy neutron scattering to investigate magnetic excitations. The LET spectrometer is ideally suited to explore the excitation spectra of these frustrated magnets expected to extend up to 2 meV. The experiments would be complementary to our studies of higher-energy crystal field transitions, already completed on the Ce material and in progress on the Nd material.

Principal Investigator: Mr Daniel Flavián Blasco
Experimenter: Professor Radu Coldea
Experimenter: Mr Daniel Antoniou
Experimenter: Mr Ben Radick
Local Contact: Dr George Wood

DOI: 10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2610506

ISIS Experiment Number: RB2610506

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:
Mr Daniel Flavián Blasco et al; (2026): Excitation spectrum in frustrated S=1/2 Ising honeycomb-lattice magnets, STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, https://doi.org/10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2610506

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