Coulomb spin liquid in anion-disordered pyrochlore Tb2Hf2O7

Romain Sibille (), Elsa Lhotel, Monica Ciomaga Hatnean, Gøran J. Nilsen, Georg Ehlers, Antonio Cervellino, Eric Ressouche, Matthias Frontzek, Oksana Zaharko, Vladimir Pomjakushin, Uwe Stuhr, Helen C. Walker, Devashibhai T. Adroja, Hubertus Luetkens, Chris Baines, Alex Amato, Geetha Balakrishnan, Tom Fennell and Michel Kenzelmann
Additional contact information
Romain Sibille: Paul Scherrer Institut
Elsa Lhotel: CNRS–Université Grenoble Alpes
Monica Ciomaga Hatnean: University of Warwick
Gøran J. Nilsen: Institut Laue-Langevin
Georg Ehlers: Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Antonio Cervellino: Paul Scherrer Institut
Eric Ressouche: Université Grenoble Alpes, CEA INAC, MEM
Matthias Frontzek: Paul Scherrer Institut
Oksana Zaharko: Paul Scherrer Institut
Vladimir Pomjakushin: Paul Scherrer Institut
Uwe Stuhr: Paul Scherrer Institut
Helen C. Walker: Chilton
Devashibhai T. Adroja: Chilton
Hubertus Luetkens: Paul Scherrer Institut
Chris Baines: Paul Scherrer Institut
Alex Amato: Paul Scherrer Institut
Geetha Balakrishnan: University of Warwick
Tom Fennell: Paul Scherrer Institut
Michel Kenzelmann: Paul Scherrer Institut

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract The charge ordered structure of ions and vacancies characterizing rare-earth pyrochlore oxides serves as a model for the study of geometrically frustrated magnetism. The organization of magnetic ions into networks of corner-sharing tetrahedra gives rise to highly correlated magnetic phases with strong fluctuations, including spin liquids and spin ices. It is an open question how these ground states governed by local rules are affected by disorder. Here we demonstrate in the pyrochlore Tb2Hf2O7, that the vicinity of the disordering transition towards a defective fluorite structure translates into a tunable density of anion Frenkel disorder while cations remain ordered. Quenched random crystal fields and disordered exchange interactions can therefore be introduced into otherwise perfect pyrochlore lattices of magnetic ions. We show that disorder can play a crucial role in preventing long-range magnetic order at low temperatures, and instead induces a strongly fluctuating Coulomb spin liquid with defect-induced frozen magnetic degrees of freedom.

Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-00905-w

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