Strongly frustrated triangular spin lattice emerging from triplet dimer formation in honeycomb Li2IrO3

Satoshi Nishimoto, Vamshi M. Katukuri (), Viktor Yushankhai, Hermann Stoll, Ulrich K. Rößler, Liviu Hozoi, Ioannis Rousochatzakis and Jeroen van den Brink
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Satoshi Nishimoto: Institute for Theoretical Solid State Physics, IFW Dresden
Vamshi M. Katukuri: Institute for Theoretical Solid State Physics, IFW Dresden
Viktor Yushankhai: Joint Institute for Nuclear Research
Hermann Stoll: Institute for Theoretical Chemistry, Universität Stuttgart
Ulrich K. Rößler: Institute for Theoretical Solid State Physics, IFW Dresden
Liviu Hozoi: Institute for Theoretical Solid State Physics, IFW Dresden
Ioannis Rousochatzakis: Institute for Theoretical Solid State Physics, IFW Dresden
Jeroen van den Brink: Institute for Theoretical Solid State Physics, IFW Dresden

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Iridium oxides with a honeycomb lattice have been identified as platforms for the much anticipated Kitaev topological spin liquid: the spin-orbit entangled states of Ir4+ in principle generate precisely the required type of anisotropic exchange. However, other magnetic couplings can drive the system away from the spin-liquid phase. With this in mind, here we disentangle the different magnetic interactions in Li2IrO3, a honeycomb iridate with two crystallographically inequivalent sets of adjacent Ir sites. Our ab initio many-body calculations show that, while both Heisenberg and Kitaev nearest-neighbour couplings are present, on one set of Ir–Ir bonds the former dominates, resulting in the formation of spin-triplet dimers. The triplet dimers frame a strongly frustrated triangular lattice and by exact cluster diagonalization we show that they remain protected in a wide region of the phase diagram.

Date: 2016
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10273

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