Strain-driven enhancement of magnetic frustration in quantum spin-liquid TbInO3 thin films

Quantum spin-liquid (QSL) ground state emerges in frustrated magnetic systems where competing interactions suppress long-range magnetic ordering. TbInO3, a hexagonal perovskite, shows QSL behaviour due to geometrical frustration and strong spin-orbit coupling present in it. Here, we report the strain-driven modification of the magnetic ground state and the enhancement of magnetic frustration at milli-Kelvin (mK) temperature (<1 K) in the TbInO3 epitaxial thin film, grown on MgO (100) substrate. We observe a Curie-Weiss crossover at 1-30 K temperature, strong antiferromagnetic interactions, along with the absence of long-range ordering down to 400 mK, consistent with a QSL ground state. Notably, the thin film exhibits a significantly enhanced effective moment in the mK range compared to the bulk, attributed to strain-induced modification of the exchange pathway among Tb 3+ ions. This impact broadens the QSL state's temperature range to lower temperatures and enhances magnetic frustration in the temperature-field phase space. Further, the first-principles calculation also supports the enhancement of frustration in thin film. These findings demonstrate that strain-induced tuning of exchange interactions can enhance the magnetic frustration, offering a route to stabilise QSL phases down to lower temperatures in hexagonal perovskite thin films.