In solid materials, nontrivial topological states, electron correlations, and magnetism are central ingredients for realizing quantum properties, including unconventional superconductivity, charge and spin density waves, and quantum spin liquids. The Kagome lattice, made up of connected triangles and hexagons, can host these three ingredients simultaneously and has proven to be a fertile platform for studying diverse quantum phenomena including those stemming from the interplay of these ingredients. In this review, we introduce the fundamental properties of the Kagome lattice as well as discuss the complex observed phenomena seen in several emergent material systems such as the intertwining of charge order and superconductivity in some Kagome metals, modulation of magnetism and topology in some Kagome magnets, and symmetry breaking with Mott physics in the breathing Kagome insulators. We also highlight many open questions in the field as well as future research directions of Kagome systems.
The nature of superconductivity in newly discovered Kagome materials, $\text{AV}_3\text{Sb}_5$ (A=K, Rb, Cs), has been a subject of intense debate. Recent experiments suggest the presence of orbital current order on top of the charge density wave (CDW) and superconductivity. Since the orbital current order breaks time-reversal symmetry, it may fundamentally affect possible superconducting states. In this work, we investigate the mutual influence between the orbital current order and superconductivity in Kagome metal with characteristic van Hove singularity (vHS). By explicitly deriving the Lan…
Kagome lattice composed of transition-metal ions provides a great opportunity to explore the intertwining between geometry, electronic orders and band topology. The discovery of multiple competing orders that connect intimately with the underlying topological band structure in nonmagnetic kagome metals $A$V$_3$Sb$_5$ ($A$ = K, Rb, Cs) further pushes this topic to the quantum frontier. Here we report the discovery and characterization of a new class of vanadium-based compounds with kagome bilayers, namely $A$V$_6$Sb$_6$ ($A$ = K, Rb, Cs) and V$_6$Sb$_4$, which, together with $A$V$_3$Sb$_5$, com…
The solid solution Cs2-xRbxSnCu3F12 (x = 0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5) has been investigated crystallographically between 100 and 300 K using synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction and, in the case of x = 0, neutron powder diffraction.
We investigate the connection between highly frustrated kagome based Hamiltonians and a recently synthesized family of materials containing Ti3+ S=1/2 ions. Employing a combination of all electron density functional theory and numerical diagonalization techniques, we establish the Heisenberg Hamiltonians for the distorted kagome antiferromagnets Rb2NaTi3F12, Cs2NaTi3F12 and Cs2KTi3F12. We determine magnetization curves in excellent agreement with experimental observations. Our calculations successfully clarify the relationship between the experimental observations and the magnetization-plateau…
Following the discovery of a new family of kagomé prototypical materials with structure AV$_3$Sb$_5$ (A = K, Rb, Cs), there has been heightened interest in studying the correlation-driven electronic phenomena in these kagomé lattice systems. The study of these materials has gone beyond magneto-transport measurements to reveal exciting features such as Dirac bands, anomalous Hall effect, bulk superconductivity with $T_c$ $\sim$ 0.9 K-2.5 K, and the observation of charge density wave instabilities, suggesting an intertwining of topological physics and new quantum orders. Moreover, very recent wo…
We present the crystal structures and magnetic properties of RE3Sb3Mg2O14 (La3Sb3Mg2O14, Pr3Sb3Mg2O14, Sm3Sb3Mg2O14, Eu3Sb3Mg2O14, Tb3Sb3Mg2O14, and Ho3Sb3Mg2O14), a family of novel materials based on a perfect geometry 2D rare earth Kagome lattice. Structure refinements were performed by the Rietveld method using X-ray diffraction data, indicating that the layered compounds are fully structurally ordered. The compounds crystallize in a rhombohedral supercell of the cubic pyrochlore structure, in the space group R-3m. As indicated by magnetic susceptibility measurements, they exhibit predomina…
Transition-metal-based kagome materials at van Hove filling are a rich frontier for the investigation of novel topological electronic states and correlated phenomena. To date, in the idealized two-dimensional kagome lattice, topologically nontrivial Dirac surface states (TDSSs) have not been unambiguously observed, and the manipulation of TDSSs and van Hove singularities (VHSs) remains largely unexplored. Here, we reveal TDSSs originating from a Z${_2}$ bulk topology and identify multiple VHSs near the Fermi level ($\textit{E}$${_F}$) in magnetic kagome material GdV${_6}$Sn${_6}$. Using in-sit…
Spin-1/2 magnets with kagome geometry, being for years a generic object of theoretical investigations, have few real material realizations. Recently, a DFT-based microscopic model for two such materials, kapellasite Cu3Zn(OH)6Cl2 and haydeeite Cu3Mg(OH)6Cl2, was presented [O. Janson, J. Richter and H. Rosner, arXiv:0806.1592]. Here, we focus on the intrinsic properties of real spin-1/2 kagome materials having influence on the magnetic ground state and the low-temperature excitations. We find that the values of exchange integrals are strongly dependent on O--H distance inside the hydroxyl group…
Intertwining quantum order and nontrivial topology is at the frontier of condensed matter physics. A charge density wave (CDW) like order with orbital currents has been proposed as a powerful resource for achieving the quantum anomalous Hall effect in topological materials and for the hidden phase in cuprate high-temperature superconductors. However, the experimental realization of such an order is challenging. Here we use high-resolution scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) to discover an unconventional charge order in a kagome material KV3Sb5, with both a topological band structure and a sup…
We present the results of first-principle calculations using the Vienna Ab-initio Simulation Package (VASP) for a new class of organometallics labeled TM3C6O6 (TM =Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Fe, Co, Ni and Cu) in the form of planar, two-dimensional, periodic free-standing layers. These materials, which can be produced by on-surface coordination on metallic surfaces, have a kagome lattice of TM ions. Calculating the structural properties, we show that all considered materials have local magnetic moments in the ground state, but four of them (with Fe, Co, Ni and Cu) show spin-crossover behavior by changing …
Recently, the bi-layer Kagome lattice material Ca$_{10}$Cr$_7$O$_{28}$ has been shown to be a quasi-two-dimensional quantum spin liquid (QSL) where the frustration arises from a balance between competing ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic exchange within a bi-layer. In an attempt to understand what happens when this balance is disturbed, we present a magnetic dilution study. Specifically, we have synthesized Ca$_{10}$(Cr$_{1-x}$V$_x$)$_7$O$_{28}$ (0 $\leq$ x $\leq$ 0.5) where magnetic Cr$^{5+}$ ($S = 1/2$) is partially replaced by non-magnetic V$^{5+}$ ($S = 0$). We also synthesized the fully…
Recent evidence from magnetic torque, electron spin resonance, and second harmonic generation indicate that the prototypical quantum spin liquid candidate, herbertsmithite, has a symmetry lower than its x-ray refined trigonal space group. Here, we consider known and possible distortions of this mineral class, along with related copper kagome oxides and fluorides, relate these to possible valence bond patterns, and comment on their relevance to the physics of these interesting materials.
University of Bologna(博洛尼亚大学);Universität Zürich(苏黎世大学);Universität Würzburg(维尔茨堡大学);Massachusetts Institute of Technology(麻省理工学院);Boston College(波士顿学院);University of California Santa Barbara(加州大学圣巴巴拉分校)
Charge order through crystallization of Frenkel excitons: realization in kagome metals
School of Physics and Astronomy and Tsung-Dao Lee Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University(上海交通大学物理与天文学院及李政道研究所);Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge(剑桥大学材料科学与工程系);Key Laboratory of Artificial Structures and Quantum Control (Ministry of Education)(人工结构与量子控制教育部重点实验室);Shanghai Branch, Hefei National Laboratory(合肥国家实验室上海分部)
We report $^{51}$V NMR, $μ$SR and zero applied field $^{63,65}$Cu NMR measurements on powder samples of Sr-vesignieite, SrCu$_3$V$_2$O$_8$(OH)$_2$, a $S = 1/2$ nearly-kagome Heisenberg antiferromagnet. Our results demonstrate that the ground state is a $\mathbf{q} = 0$ magnetic structure with spins canting either in or out of the kagome plane, giving rise to weak ferromagnetism. We determine the size of ordered moments and the angle of canting for different possible $\mathbf{q} = 0$ structures and orbital scenarios, thereby providing insight into the role of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) inte…
Kagome lattice systems have been proposed to host rich physics, which provide an excellent platform to explore unusual quantum states. Here, we report on the discovery of superconductivity in van der Waals material Pd3P2S8 under pressure. The superconductivity is observed in Pd3P2S8 for those pressures where the temperature dependence of the resistivity changes from a semiconducting-like behavior to that of a normal metal. The superconducting transition temperature Tc increases with applied pressure and reaches ~ 6.83 K at 79.5 GPa. Combining high-pressure XRD, Raman spectroscopy and theoretic…
The interesting properties of Kagome bands, consisting of Dirac bands and a flat band, have attracted extensive attention. However, the materials with only one Kagome band around the Fermi level cannot possess physical properties of Dirac fermions and strong correlated fermions simultaneously. Here, we propose a new type of band structure --- double Kagome bands, which can realize coexistence of the two kinds of fermions. Moreover, the new band structure is found to exist in a new two-dimensional material, phosphorus carbide P2C3. The carbide material shows good stability and unusual electroni…
Precompression engineering of metal-insulator transition and magnetism in designed breathing kagome systems
School of Physics and Astronomy, and Key Laboratory of Multiscale Spin Physics (Ministry of Education), Beijing Normal University(北京师范大学物理与天文学院,多尺度自旋物理教育部重点实验室);College of Physics, Hebei Normal University, and Hebei Advanced Thin Films Laboratory(河北师范大学物理学院,河北省先进薄膜实验室)
Topological kagome systems have been a topic of great interest in condensed matter physics due totheir unique electronic properties. The vanadium-based kagome materials are particularly intrigu-ing since they exhibit exotic phenomena such as charge density wave (CDW) and unconventionalsuperconductivity. The origin of these electronic instabilities is not fully understood, and the re-cent discovery of a charge density wave in ScV6Sn6provides a new avenue for investigation. In thiswork, we investigate the electronic structure of the novel kagome metal ScV6Sn6using angle resolvedphotoemission spe…
Low energy inelastic neutron scattering on single crystals of the kagome spin liquid compound ZnCu3(OD)6Cl2 (Herbertsmithite) reveals antiferromagnetic correlations between impurity spins for energy transfers E < 0.8 meV (~J/20). The momentum dependence differs significantly from higher energy scattering which arises from the intrinsic kagome spins. The low energy fluctuations are characterized by diffuse scattering near wavevectors (1 0 0) and (0 0 3/2), which is consistent with antiferromagnetic correlations between pairs of nearest neighbor Cu impurities on adjacent triangular (Zn) interlay…
Spin and charge are two interrelated properties of electrons. However, most of previous works on topological matter study the electronic and magnonic excitations separately. In this paper, by combining density functional theory calculations with the Schwinger boson method, we determine the topological electronic band structures and topological magnon spectrum simultaneously in the ferromagnetic ground state of the narrow-band-gap CoCu3(OH)6Cl2, which is an ABC stacking Kagome lattice material with fractional occupancy on Cu sites. This material provides an ideal platform to study the interplay…
Recently Han et al. have provided an analysis of the observed behavior of $\rm ZnCu_{3}(OH)_6Cl_2$ Herbertsmithite based on a separation of the contributions to its thermodynamic properties due to impurities from those due to the kagome lattice. The authors developed an impurity model to account for the experimental data and claimed that it is compatible with the presence of a small spin gap in the kagome layers. We argue that the model they advocate is problematic, conflicting with the intrinsic properties of $\rm ZnCu_{3}(OH)_6Cl_2$ as observed and explained in recent experimental and theore…
The field of frustrated magnetism has been enriched significantly by the discovery of various kagome lattice compounds. These materials exhibit a great variety of macroscopic behaviours ranging from magnetic orders to quantum spin liquids. Using large-scale exact diagonalization, we construct the phase diagram of the $S=1/2$ $J_1$-$J_2$ kagome Heisenberg model with $z$-axis Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction $D_z$. We show that this model can systematically account for many of the experimentally observed phases. Small $J_2$ and $D_z$ can stabilize respectively a gapped and a gapless spin liquid…
Spin-frustrated systems are one avenue for inducing macroscopic quantum states in materials. However, experimental realization of this goal has been difficult because of the lack of simple materials and, if available, the separation of the unusual magnetic properties arising from exotic magnetic states from behavior associated with chemical disorder, such as site mixing. Here we report the synthesis and magnetic properties of a new series of magnetically frustrated materials, MgxCu4-x(OH)6Cl2. Because of the substantially different ligand-field chemistry of Mg2+ and Cu2+, site disorder within …
The spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ kagome antiferromagnet is considered an ideal host for a quantum spin liquid ground state. We find that when the bonds of the kagome lattice are modulated with a periodic pattern, new quantum ground states emerge. Newly synthesized crystalline barlowite (Cu$_4$(OH)$_6$FBr) and Zn-substituted barlowite demonstrate the delicate interplay between singlet states and spin order on the spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ kagome lattice. Comprehensive structural measurements demonstrate that our new variant of barlowite maintains hexagonal symmetry at low temperatures with an arrangement of dis…
Recent experimental discovery of several families of kagome-lattice materials has boosted the interest in electronic correlations on kagome lattice. As an initial step to understand the observed complex phenomena, it is helpful to know the correspondence between simple forms of interactions and the induced correlated states on kagome lattice. Considering the lack of such studies, here we systematically investigate the attractive kagome-lattice Hubbard model using the mean-field approach and determinant quantum Monte Carlo (DQMC). A charge-density-wave order satisfying the triangle rule is pred…
A preponderance of evidence suggests that the ground state of the nearest-neighbor $S = 1/2$ antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on the kagome lattice is a gapless spin liquid. Many candidate materials for the realization of this model possess in addition a Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction. We study this system by tensor-network methods and deduce that a weak but finite DM interaction is required to destabilize the gapless spin-liquid state. The critical magnitude, $D_c/J \simeq 0.012(2)$, lies well below the DM strength proposed in the kagome material herbertsmithite, indicating a need t…
Recent high pressure experiments discovered abnormal double-dome superconductivities in the newly-synthesized kagome materials $A$V$_3$Sb$_5$ ($A$ = K, Rb, Cs), which also host abundant emergent quantum phenomena such as charge density wave (CDW), anomalous Hall effect, nontrivial topological property, etc. In this work, by using first-principles electronic structure calculations, we have studied the CDW state, superconductivity, and topological property in CsV$_3$Sb$_5$ under pressures ($<$ 50 GPa). Based on the electron-phonon coupling theory, our calculated superconducting $T_\text{c}$s are…
The quasi two-dimensional (quasi-2D) kagome materials AV$_3$Sb$_5$ (A=K, Rb, Cs) were found to be a prime example of kagome superconductors, a new quantum platform to investigate the interplay between electron correlation effects, topology and geometric frustration. In this review, we report recent progress on the experimental and theoretical studies of AV$_3$Sb$_5$ and provide a broad picture of this fast-developing field in order to stimulate an expanded search for unconventional kagome superconductors. We review the electronic properties of AV$_3$Sb$_5$, the experimental measurements of the…
We discover three-dimensional intertwined Weyl phases, by developing a theory to create topological phases. The theory is based on intertwining existing topological gapped and gapless phases protected by the same crystalline symmetry. The intertwined Weyl phases feature both unconventional Weyl semimetallic (monopole charge>1) and higher-order topological phases, and more importantly, their exotic intertwining. While the two phases are independently stabilized by the same symmetry, their intertwining results in the specific distribution of them in the bulk. The construction mechanism allows us…
Recently, kagome materials have become an engrossing platform to study the interplay among symmetry, magnetism, topology, and electron correlation. The latest works on RMn6Sn6 (R = rare earth metal) compounds have illustrated that this family could be intriguing to investigate various physical phenomena due to large spin-orbit coupling and strong magnetic ordering. However, combined transport and spectroscopic studies in RMn6Sn6 materials are still limited. Here, we report magnetic, magneto-transport, and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements of a kagome magnet ErMn6Sn6 that u…
There is a growing family of rare-earth kagome materials with dominant nearest-neighbor interactions and strong spin orbit coupling. The low symmetry of these materials makes theoretical description complicated, with six distinct nearest-neighbor coupling parameters allowed. In this Article, we ask what kinds of classical, ordered, ground states can be expected to occur in these materials, assuming generic (i.e. non-fine-tuned) sets of exchange parameters. We use symmetry analysis to show that there are only five distinct classical ground state phases occurring for generic parameters. The five…
The binary intermetallic materials, $M_3$Sn$_2$ ($M$ = 3d transition metal) present a new class of strongly correlated systems that naturally allows for the interplay of magnetism and metallicity. Using first principles calculations we confirm that bulk Fe$_3$Sn$_2$ is a ferromagnetic metal, and show that $M$ = Ni and Cu are paramagnetic metals with non-trivial band structures. Focusing on Fe$_3$Sn$_2$ to understand the effect of enhanced correlations in an experimentally relevant atomistically thin single kagome-bilayer, our ab-initio results show that dimensional confinement naturally expose…