Akademska digitalna zbirka SLovenije - logo
E-resources
Peer reviewed Open access
  • Non-magnetic ion site disor...
    Huang, Q; Rawl, R; Xie, W W; Chou, E S; Zapf, V S; Ding, X X; Mauws, C; Wiebe, C R; Feng, E X; Cao, H B; Tian, W; Ma, J; Qiu, Y; Butch, N; Zhou, H D

    Journal of physics. Condensed matter, 2022-Mar-10, Volume: 34, Issue: 20
    Journal Article

    With the motivation to study how non-magnetic ion site disorder affects the quantum magnetism of Ba CoSb O , a spin-1/2 equilateral triangular lattice antiferromagnet, we performed DC and AC susceptibility, specific heat, elastic and inelastic neutron scattering measurements on single crystalline samples of Ba Sr CoSb O with Sr doping on non-magnetic Ba ion sites. The results show that Ba Sr CoSb O exhibits (i) a two-step magnetic transition at 2.7 K and 3.3 K, respectively; (ii) a possible canted 120 degree spin structure at zero field with reduced ordered moment as 1.24 /Co; (iii) a series of spin state transitions for both ∥ -plane and ∥ -axis. For ∥ -plane, the magnetization plateau feature related to the up-up-down phase is significantly suppressed; (iv) an inelastic neutron scattering spectrum with only one gapped mode at zero field, which splits to one gapless and one gapped mode at 9 T. All these features are distinctly different from those observed for the parent compound Ba CoSb O , which demonstrates that the non-magnetic ion site disorder (the Sr doping) plays a complex role on the magnetic properties beyond the conventionally expected randomization of the exchange interactions. We propose the additional effects including the enhancement of quantum spin fluctuations and introduction of a possible spatial anisotropy through the local structural distortions.