Quantum electric-dipole liquid on a triangular lattice

Shi-Peng Shen, Jia-Chuan Wu, Jun-Da Song, Xue-Feng Sun (), Yi-Feng Yang, Yi-Sheng Chai, Da-Shan Shang, Shou-Guo Wang, James F. Scott and Young Sun ()
Additional contact information
Shi-Peng Shen: Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Jia-Chuan Wu: Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China
Jun-Da Song: Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China
Xue-Feng Sun: Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China
Yi-Feng Yang: Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Yi-Sheng Chai: Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Da-Shan Shang: Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Shou-Guo Wang: Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
James F. Scott: Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge
Young Sun: Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-6

Abstract: Abstract Geometric frustration and quantum fluctuations may prohibit the formation of long-range ordering even at the lowest temperature, and therefore liquid-like ground states could be expected. A good example is the quantum spin liquid in frustrated magnets. Geometric frustration and quantum fluctuations can happen beyond magnetic systems. Here we propose that quantum electric-dipole liquids, analogues of quantum spin liquids, could emerge in frustrated dielectrics where antiferroelectrically coupled electric dipoles reside on a triangular lattice. The quantum paraelectric hexaferrite BaFe12O19 with geometric frustration represents a promising candidate for the proposed electric-dipole liquid. We present a series of experimental lines of evidence, including dielectric permittivity, heat capacity and thermal conductivity measured down to 66 mK, to reveal the existence of an unusual liquid-like quantum phase in BaFe12O19, characterized by itinerant low-energy excitations with a small gap. The possible quantum liquids of electric dipoles in frustrated dielectrics open up a fresh playground for fundamental physics.

Date: 2016
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms10569 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms10569

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10569

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().