Magnetic dilution in the triangular lattice antiferromagnet <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mrow><mml:msub><mml:mi>NaYb</mml:mi><mml:mrow><mml:mn>1</mml:mn><mml:mo>−</mml:mo><mml:mi>x</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:msub><mml:m
The delafossitelike compound ${\mathrm{NaYbO}}_{2}$ hosts a triangular lattice of ${\mathrm{Yb}}^{3+}$ moments and is a promising candidate for the realization of a quantum spin liquid ground state---an exotic, quantum-disordered magnetic phase featuring long-range entanglement of spins. Tuning this system away from this quantum-disordered regime toward classical order or spin freezing is a powerful approach to shed light on the nature of the parent ground state. Here we leverage the substitution of nonmagnetic ${\mathrm{Lu}}^{3+}$ onto the ${\mathrm{Yb}}^{3+}$ sites to study the effects of magnetic disorder in ${\mathrm{NaYbO}}_{2}$ using low-temperature ac susceptibility, heat capacity, and muon spin relaxation ($\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{SR}$) measurements. Our $\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{SR}$ measurements reveal resilient, correlated magnetic fluctuations that persist to at least 15% dilution, precluding conventional spin freezing and magnetic inhomogeneity. Heat capacity and magnetic susceptibility resolve a rapid suppression of the field-induced ``up-up-down'' magnetic order upon dilution and a crossover in the power-law behavior of the low-temperature magnetic excitations associated with the zero-field quantum disordered ground state. Taken together, these results support the notion of a robust network of entangled moments in ${\mathrm{NaYbO}}_{2}$ and provide experimental validation of several models of a Heisenberg triangular lattice antiferromagnet in the presence of disorder.
Authors
- Andrea Capa Salinas (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5308-7520)
- Stephen D. Wilson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3733-930X)
- M. J. Graf (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3977-3006)
- Soren Bear (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8447-0875)
- Adam Berlie (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3434-7892)
- Steven J. Gomez Alvarado (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5783-1126)
- Benito A. Gonzalez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6326-1062)
- Brenden R. Ortiz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1333-7003)
Institutions
- Boston College (US)
- Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (GB)
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (US)
- University of California, Santa Barbara (US)
- ISIS Neutron and Muon Source
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical review. B./Physical review. B
- Published
- 2025-10-21
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/th1p-5rxt
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Advanced Condensed Matter Physics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.26