Dynamical correlations of quantum many-body systems are typically analyzed in the momentum space and frequency basis. However, quantum simulators operate more naturally in real space, real time settings. Here we analyze the real-space time-dependent van Hove spin correlations $G(r,t)$ of the 2D triangular antiferromagnet KYbSe$_2$ as obtained from high-resolution Fourier-transformed neutron spectroscopy. We compare this to $G(r,t)$ from five theoretical simulations of the well-established spin Hamiltonian. Our analysis reveals non-linear sub-ballistic low-temperature transport in KYbSe$_2$ which none of the current state-of-the-art numerical or field-theoretical methods reproduce. Our observation signals an emergent collective hydrodynamics, perhaps associated with the quantum critical phase of a quantum spin liquid, and provides an ideal benchmark for future quantum simulations.
We apply the coupled cluster method and exact diagonalzation to study the uniform susceptibility and the ground-state magnetization curve of the triangular-lattice spin-1 Heisenberg antiferromagnet. Comparing our theoretical data for the magnetization curve with recent measurements on the s=1 triangular lattice antiferromagnet Ba3NiSb2O9 we find a very good agreement.
Magnetoelectric and magnetoelastic phenomena correlated with a phase transition into noncollinear magnetic phase have been investigated for single crystals of CuFeO2 with a frustrated triangular lattice. CuFeO2 exhibits several long-wavelength magnetic structures related to the spin frustration, and it is found that finite electric polarization, namely inversion symmetry breaking, occurs with noncollinear but not at collinear magnetic phases. This result demonstrates that the noncollinear spin structure is a key role to induce electric polarization, and suggests that frustrated magnets which o…
The temperature-magnetic-field phase diagram of the mixed honeycomb triangular lattice system K$_{2}$Mn$_{3}$(VO$_{4}$)$_{2}$CO$_{3}$ is investigated by means of magnetization, heat capacity and neutron scattering measurements. The results indicate that triangular and honeycomb magnetic layers undergo sequential magnetic orderings and act as nearly independent magnetic sublattices. The honeycomb sublattice orders at about 85 K in a Neél-type antiferromagnetic structure, while the triangular sublattice displays two consecutive ordered states at much lower temperatures, 3 K and 2.2 K. The ground…
In this study, we investigate the magnetic susceptibility, entropy, and isothermal magnetization curve of the spin-1/2 Heisenberg model on an anisotropic triangular lattice using the orthogonalized finite-temperature Lanczos method. In addition, we investigate the adiabatic magnetization curve and magnetocaloric effect. We estimate these physical quantities with sufficient accuracy in the thermodynamic limit, except at low temperatures. We observe a 1/3 magnetization plateau in the isothermal magnetization process, whereas the plateau is observed to have a slope in the adiabatic process. We sh…
We report the results of magnetization and specific heat measurements on Ba$_3$NiSb$_2$O$_9$, which is a quasi-two-dimensional spin-1 triangular-lattice antiferromagnet. We observed a nonclassical magnetization plateau at one-third of the saturation magnetization that is driven by spin frustration and quantum fluctuation. Exact diagonalization for a 21-site rhombic cluster was performed to analyze the magnetization process. Experimental and calculated results agree well.
Multiple-$Q$ magnetic states often induce nontrivial topological spin textures, such as a skyrmion and a hedgehog. We theoretically investigate yet another multiple-$Q$ state with topological defects, a meron-antimeron crystal (MAX), represented by a periodic array of the meron and antimeron with a half-integer skyrmion number. Performing simulated annealing for an effective spin model of noncentrosymmetric itinerant magnets on a triangular lattice, we show that rectangular-shaped and triangular-shaped MAXs are stabilized by the interplay between the biquadratic interaction arising from the sp…
Yb-based triangular magnets have recently attracted attention as promising candidates to explore frustrated quantum magnetism. However, some candidates have turned out to have significant amounts of site disorder, which significantly affects the low-temperature magnetic behavior. To overcome this issue, Yb-based frustrated systems without structural disorder are required. In this paper, we report physical properties of two Yb-based triangular magnets Ba3YbB3O9 and Ba3YbB9O18, without structural disorder. Via magnetic susceptibility, magnetization, and muon spin rotation measurements, we verifi…
We report a detailed study of the magnetic properties of KBaGd(BO$_3$)$_2$, in which magnetic Gd$^{3+}$ ($S=7/2$) ions form into two-dimensional triangular layers. Magnetization, specific heat and magnetocaloric effect (MCE) measurements have been performed on KBaGd(BO$_3$)$_2$ single crystals. The results show that a long-range antiferromagnetic state is established below $T_{\rm N}=0.24$ K. In zero fields, only about half of the full entropy is released at $T_{\rm N}$, indicating that not all the magnetic moments are frozen below the ordering temperature, as expected from the geometrical fru…
We investigate the anisotropic triangular lattice that interpolates from decoupled one-dimensional chains to the isotropic triangular lattice and has been suggested to be relevant for various quasi-two-dimensional materials, such as Cs$_2$CuCl$_4$ or $κ$-(ET)$_2$Cu$_2$(CN)$_3$, an organic material that shows intriguing magnetic properties. We obtain an excellent accuracy by means of a novel representation for the resonating valence bond wave function with both singlet and triplet pairing. This approach allows us to establish that the magnetic order is rapidly destroyed away from the pure trian…
The magnetic phases of a triangular-lattice antiferromagnet, CuCrO$_2$, were investigated in magnetic fields along to the $c$ axis, $H$ // [001], up to 120 T. Faraday rotation and magneto-absorption spectroscopy were used to unveil the rich physics of magnetic phases. An up-up-down (UUD) magnetic structure phase was observed around 90--105 T at temperatures around 10 K. Additional distinct anomalies adjacent to the UUD phase were uncovered and the Y-shaped and the V-shaped phases are proposed to be viable candidates. These ordered phases are emerged as a result of the interplay of geometrical …
We investigate the $S=1/2$ quantum spin antiferromagnets on the triangular and Kagome lattices in magnetic field, using the numerical exact diagonalization. Particularly we focus on an anomalous magnetization behavior of each system at 1/3 of the saturation magnetization. The critical exponent analyses suggest that it is a conventional magnetization plateau on the triangular lattice, while an unconventional phenomenon, called the magnetization ramp, on the Kagome lattice.
We have investigated spin-wave excitations in a magnetic-field-induced 1/5-magnetization plateau phase in a triangular lattice antiferromagnet CuFeO2 (CFO), by means of inelastic neutron scattering measurements under applied magnetic fields of up to 13.4 T. Comparing the observed spectra with the calculations in which spin-lattice coupling effects for the nearest neighbor exchange interactions are taken into account, we have determined the Hamiltonian parameters in the field-induced 1/5- plateau phase, which directly show that CFO exhibits a bond order associated with the magnetic structure in…
We study the magnetization process of the spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on a layered triangular lattice by means of a numerical cluster mean-field method with a scaling scheme (CMF+S). It has been known that antiferromagnetic spins on a two-dimensional (2D) triangular lattice with quantum fluctuations exhibit a one-third magnetization plateau in the magnetization curve under magnetic field. We demonstrate that the CMF+S quantitatively reproduces the magnetization curve including the stabilization of the plateau. {We also discuss the effects of a finite interlayer coupling, which …
We study the double-exchange model at half-filling with competing superexchange interactions on a triangular lattice, combining exact diagonalization and Monte-Carlo methods. We find that in between the expected itinerant ferromagnetic and $120^{\circ}$ Yafet-Kittel phases a robust scalar-chiral, insulating spin state emerges. At finite temperatures the ferromagnet - scalar-chiral quantum critical point is characterized by anomalous bad-metal behavior in charge transport as observed in frustrated itinerant magnets R$_2$Mo$_{2}$O$_7$.
We investigate the possible regular magnetic order (RMO) for the spin models with global O(3) spin rotation, based on a group theoretical approach for triangular and kagome lattices. The main reason to study these RMOs is that they are good variational candidates for the ground states of many specific models. In this work, we followed the prescription introduced by Messio et al. (L. Messio, C. Lhuillier, and G. Misguich, Phys. Rev. B, 2011, 83, 184401) for the p6m group and extended their work for different subgroups of p6m, i.e., p6, p3, p3m1, and p31m. We have listed all the possible regular…
In order to study the magnetic properties of frustrated metallic systems, we present Quantum Monte Carlo data on the magnetic susceptibility of the Hubbard model on triangular and Kagome lattices. We show that the underlying lattice structure is important, and determines the nature and the doping dependence of the magnetic fluctuations. In particular, in the doped Kagome case we find strong short-range magnetic correlations, which makes the metallic Kagome systems a promising field for studies of superconductivity.
Evolution of the magnetic response function in the triangular-lattice Hubbard model is studied with interaction strength within a systematic inverse-degeneracy expansion scheme which incorporates self-energy and vertex corrections and explicitly preserves the spin-rotation symmetry. It is shown that at half filling the response function goes through a nearly dispersionless regime around K for intermediate coupling strength, before undergoing an inversion at strong coupling, resulting in maximum response at the K point, consistent with the expected 120^o AF instability. Effects of finite hole/e…
Ferroelectric properties in magnetic fields of varying magnitude and direction have been investigated for a triangular-lattice helimagnet CuFe1-xGaxO2 (x=0.035). The magnetoelectric phase diagrams were deduced for magnetic fields along [001], [110], and [1-10] direction, and the in-plane magnetic field was found to induce the rearrangement of six possible multiferroic domains. Upon every 60-degree rotation of in-plane magnetic field around the c-axis, unique 120-degree flop of electric polarization occurs as a result of the switch of helical magnetic q-vector. The chirality of spin helix is al…
We propose theoretically that a magnetic field can realize spin-triplet superconductivity in repulsively interacting electron systems having strong ferromagnetic spin fluctuations. We confirm the general idea for the low-density Hubbard model on a triangular lattice, whose Fermi surface consists of disconnected pieces, by calculating the pairing susceptibility in a moderate magnetic field with the quantum Monte-Carlo method combined with the dynamical cluster approximation.
We report the results of magnetization and specific heat measurements on Ba$_3$CoSb$_2$O$_9$, in which the magnetic Co$^{2+}$ ion has a fictitious spin-1/2, and show evidence that a spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a regular triangular lattice is actually realized in Ba$_3$CoSb$_2$O$_9$. We found that the entire magnetization curve including the one-third quantum magnetization plateau is in excellent agreement with theoretical calculations at a quantitative level.
Ba3IrTi2O9 crystallizes in a hexagonal structure consisting of a layered triangular arrangement of Ir4+ (Jeff=1/2). Magnetic susceptibility and heat capacity data show no magnetic ordering down to 0.35K inspite of a strong magnetic coupling as evidenced by a large Curie-Weiss temperature=-130K. The magnetic heat capacity follows a power law at low temperature. Our measurements suggest that Ba3IrTi2O9 is a 5d, Ir-based (Jeff=1/2), quantum spin liquid on a 2D triangular lattice.
We uncover four new spin-charge ordered ground states in the strong coupling limit of the Kondo lattice model on triangular geometry. Two of the states at one-third electronic filling ($n=1/3$) consist of decorated ferromagnetic chains coupled antiferromagnetically with the neighboring chains. The third magnetic ground state is noncollinear, consisting of antiferromagnetic chains separated by a pair of canted ferromagnetic chains. An even more unusual magnetic ground state, a variant of the $120^{\circ}$ Yafet-Kittel phase, is discovered at $n=2/3$. These magnetic orders are stabilized by open…
RbFe(MoO4)2 is a rare example of a nearly two-dimensional Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a triangular lattice. Magnetic resonance spectra and magnetization curves reveal that the system has a layered spin structure with six magnetic sublattices. The sublattices within a layer are arranged in a triangular manner with the magnetization vectors 120 degree apart. The H-T phase diagram, containing at least five different magnetic phases is constructed. In zero field, RbFe(MoO4)2 undergoes a phase transition at T_N=3.8 K into a non-collinear triangular spin structure with all the spins confined in th…
We study magnetic and charge susceptibilities in the half-filled two-dimensional triangular Hubbard model within the dual fermion approximation in the metallic, Mott insulating, and crossover regions of parameter space. In the \textcolor{black}{insulating state}, we find strong spin fluctuations at the K point at low energy corresponding to the \textcolor{black}{120$^{\circ}$} antiferromagnetic order. These spin fluctuations persist into the metallic phase and move to higher energy. We also present data for simulated neutron spectroscopy and \textcolor{black}{spin-lattice} relaxation times, an…
Very often the skyrmions form a triangular crystal in chiral magnets. Here we study the effect of itinerant electrons on the structure of skyrmion crystal (SkX) on triangular lattice using Kondo lattice model in the large coupling limit and treating the localized spins as classical vectors. To simulate the system, we employ hybrid Markov Chain Monte Carlo method (hMCMC) which includes electron diagonalization in each MCMC update for classical spins. We present the low temperature results for $12\times 12$ system at electron density $n=1/3$ which show a sudden jump in skyrmion number when we in…
This paper examines the relation between the spin-wave instabilities of collinear magnetic phases and the resulting non-collinear phases for a geometrically-frustrated triangular-lattice antiferromagnet in the high spin limit. Using a combination of phenomenological and Monte-Carlo techniques, we demonstrate that the instability wave-vector with the strongest intensity in the collinear phase determines the wave-vector of a cycloid or the dominant elastic peak of a more complex non-collinear phase. Our results are related to the observed multi-ferroic phase of Al-doped CuFeO$_2$.
We report the crystal structure of Ba$_2$La$_2$CoTe$_2$O$_{12}$ determined by Rietveld analysis using X-ray powder diffraction data. It was found from magnetic measurements that Ba$_2$La$_2$CoTe$_2$O$_{12}$ can be described as a spin-1\2 triangular-lattice antiferromagnet with easy-plane anisotropy at low temperatures. This compound undergoes a magnetic phase transition at $T_{\rm N}\,{=}\,3.26$ K to an ordered state with the $120^{\circ}$ structure. The magnetization curve exhibits the one-third plateau characteristic of triangular-lattice quantum antiferromagnets. The antiferromagnetic excha…
We study the spin wave in the S=1/2 multiple-spin exchange model on a triangular lattice in a magnetic field within the linear spin-wave theory. We take only two-, three- and four-spin exchange interactions into account and restrict ourselves to the region where a coplanar three-sublattice state is the mean-field ground state. We found that the Y-shape ground state survives quantum fluctuations and the phase transition to a phase with a 6-sublattice structure occurs with softening of the spin wave. We estimated the quantum corrections to the ground state sublattice magnetizations due to zero-p…
The spin Green's function of the antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on a triangular lattice is calculated using Mori's projection operator technique. At T=0 the spin excitation spectrum is shown to have gaps at the wave vectors of the classical Neel ordering. This points to the absence of the antiferromagnetic long-range order in the ground state. The calculated spin correlation on the neighboring sites of the same sublattice is in good agreement with the value derived from exact diagonalization. The temperature dependencies of the spin correlations and the gaps are calculated.
Low-temperature magnetization curves and thermodynamics of a frustrated spin-1/2 Heisenberg triangular bilayer with the antiferromagnetic intradimer interaction and either ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic interdimer interaction are investigated in a highly frustrated parameter region, where localized many-magnon eigenstates provide the most dominant contribution to magnetothermodynamics. Low-energy states of the highly frustrated spin-1/2 Heisenberg triangular bilayer can be accordingly found from a mapping correspondence with an effective triangular-lattice spin-1/2 Ising model in a field. …
We synthesized a quasi-two-dimensional distorted triangular lattice antiferromagnet Ca$_3$CoNb$_2$O$_9$, in which the effective spin of Co$^{2+}$ is 1/2 at low temperatures, whose magnetic properties were studied by dc susceptibility and magnetization techniques. The x-ray diffraction confirms the quality of our powder samples. The large Weiss constant $θ_{CW}\sim$ $-55$ K and the low Neel temperature($T_N\sim$ 1.45 K) give a frustration factor $f$ ($=\midθ_{CW}/T_N \mid$) $\approx$ 38, suggesting that Ca$_3$CoNb$_2$O$_9$ resides in strong frustration regime. Slightly below $T_N$, deviation be…
A molecular Mott insulator $κ$-(ET)$_2$B(CN)$_4$ [ET = bis(ethylenedithio)tetrathiafulvalene] with a distorted triangular lattice exhibits a quantum disordered state with gapped spin excitation in the ground state. $^{13}$C nuclear magnetic resonance, magnetization, and magnetic torque measurements reveal that magnetic field suppresses valence bond order and induces long-range magnetic order above a critical field $\sim 8$ T. The nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate $1/T_1$ shows persistent evolution of antiferromagnetic correlation above the transition temperature, highlighting a quantum spin…
We use Schwinger boson mean field theory to study the antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 Heisenberg model on an anisotropic triangular lattice in the presence of a uniform external magnetic field. We calculate the field dependence of the spin incommensurability in the ordered spin spiral phase, and compare the results to the recent experiments in Cs$_{2}$CuCl$_{4}$ by Coldea et al. (Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 1335 (2001)).
The crystal structure and magnetic properties of the spin-1 triangular-lattice antiferromagnet Ba$_2$La$_2$NiTe$_2$O$_{12}$ are reported. Its crystal structure is trigonal $R\bar{3}$, which is the same as that of Ba$_2$La$_2$NiW$_2$O$_{12}$ [Y. Doi et al., J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 29, 365802 (2017)]. However, the exchange interaction $J/k_{\mathrm{B}}\simeq19$ K is much greater than that observed in the tungsten system. At zero magnetic field, Ba$_2$La$_2$NiTe$_2$O$_{12}$ undergoes successive magnetic phase transitions at $T_{\mathrm{N}1}=9.8$ K and $T_{\mathrm{N}2}=8.9$ K. The ground state i…
Geometrically frustrated magnets provide abundant opportunities for discovering complex spin textures, which sometimes yield unconventional electromagnetic responses in correlated electron systems. It is theoretically predicted that magnetic frustration may also promote a topologically nontrivial spin state, i.e., magnetic skyrmions, which are nanometric spin vortices. Empirically, however, skyrmions are essentially concomitant with noncentrosymmetric lattice structures or interfacial-symmetry-breaking heterostructures. Here, we report the emergence of a Bloch-type skyrmion state in the frustr…
We report magnetocaloric and magnetic-torque evidence that in Cs$_{2}$CuBr$_{4}$ -- a geometrically frustrated Heisenberg $S=1/2$ triangular-lattice antiferromagnet -- quantum fluctuations stabilize a series of spin states at simple increasing fractions of the saturation magnetization $M_{s}$. Only the first of these states -- at $M={1/3}M_{s}$ -- has been theoretically predicted. We discuss how the higher fraction quantum states might arise and propose model spin arrangements. We argue that the first-order nature of the transitions into those states is due to strong lowering of the energies b…
We report an excellent realization of the highly non-classical incommensurate spin-density wave (SDW) state in the quantum frustrated antiferromagnetic insulator Cs$_2$CoBr$_4$. In contrast to the well-known Ising spin chain case, here the SDW is stabilized by virtue of competing planar in-chain anisotropies and frustrated interchain exchange. Adjacent to the SDW phase is a broad $m = 1/3$ magnetization plateau that can be seen as a commensurate locking of the SDW state into the up-up-down (UUD) spin structure. This represents the first example of long-sought SDW-UUD transition in triangular-t…
The time-dependent exact-diagonalization method is used to study the light-induced phase transition of magnetic orders in the anisotropic triangular-lattice Hubbard model. Calculating the spin correlation function, we confirm that the phase transition from the 120$^{\circ}$ order to the Néel order can take place due to high-frequency periodic fields. We show that the effective Heisenberg-model Hamiltonian derived from the high-frequency expansion by the Floquet theory describes the present system very well and that the ratio of the exchange interactions expressed in terms of the frequency and …
We present the results of muon-spin relaxation measurements on the triangular lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnet $α$-KCrO$_{2}$. We observe sharp changes in behaviour at an ordering temperature of $T_{\mathrm{c}}=23$ K, with an additional broad feature in the muon-spin relaxation rate evident at T=13 K, both of which correspond to features in the magnetic contribution to the heat capacity. This behaviour is distinct from both the Li- and Na- containing members of the series. These data may be qualitatively described with the established theoretical predictions for the underlying spin system.
We report muon-spin rotation, heat capacity, magnetization, and ac magnetic susceptibility measurements of the layered spin-1/2 antiferromagnet NaNiO2. These show the onset of long-range magnetic order below T_N = 19.5K. Rapid muon depolarization persisting to about 5K above T_N is consistent with the presence of short-range magnetic order. The temperature and frequency dependence of the ac susceptibility suggests that magnetic clusters persist above 25K in the paramagnetic state and that their volume fraction decreases with increasing temperature. A frequency dependent peak in the ac magnetic…
The dynamical structure factor is an important observable of quantum magnets but due to numerical and theoretical limitations, it remains a challenge to make predictions for Hubbard-like models beyond one dimension. In this work, we study the magnetic excitations of the triangular lattice Hubbard model including next-nearest neighbor hopping. Starting from the 120$^{\circ}$ and stripe magnetic orders we compute the magnon spectra within a self-consistent random phase approximation. In the stripe phase, we generically find accidental zero modes related to a classical degeneracy known from the c…
The rare-earth triangular-lattice chalcogenide is a great platform for exploring both spin liquids and novel magnetic orders with anisotropic spin interactions and magnetic frustrations. Here, we report the thermodynamic and neutron scattering measurements of rare-earth triangular-lattice chalcogenide KErSe$_{2}$, using single-crystal samples. Our experiments revealed a long-range stripe order below 0.2 K. Although the magnetic order was three-dimensional, magnetic excitations exhibited negligible modulation along the z direction, indicating very weak interlayer coupling. Furthermore, magnetic…
Using Monte Carlo simulations, we explore the magnetic phase diagram of the triangular spin tubes coupled with a ferromagnetic inter-tube interaction for CsCrF4. A planar structure of the coupled tubes is topologically equivalent to the Kagome-triangular lattice, which induces nontrivial frustration effects in the system. We particularly find that, depending on the inter-tube coupling, various ordered phases are actually realized, such as incommensurate order, ferromagnetic order, and Cuboc order, which is characterized by the non-coplanar spin structure of the twelve sublattice accompanying t…
An $S=1/2$ triangular-lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnet with next-nearest-neighbor interactions is investigated under a magnetic field by the numerical-diagonalization method. It is known that, in both cases of weak and strong next-nearest-neighbor interactions, this system reveals a magnetization plateau at one-third of the saturated magnetization. We examine the stability of this magnetization plateau when the amplitude of next-nearest-neighbor interactions is varied. We find that a nonplateau region appears between the plateau phases in the cases of weak and strong next-nearest-neighbor in…
Skyrmions, topologically-protected nanometric spin vortices, are being investigated extensively in various magnets. Among them, many of structurally-chiral cubic magnets host the triangular-lattice skyrmion crystal (SkX) as the thermodynamic equilibrium state. However, this state exists only in a narrow temperature and magnetic-field region just below the magnetic transition temperature $T_\mathrm{c}$, while a helical or conical magnetic state prevails at lower temperatures. Here we describe that for a room-temperature skyrmion material, $β$-Mn-type Co$_8$Zn$_8$Mn$_4$, a field-cooling via the …
We performed neutron single crystal and synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction experiments in order to investigate the magnetic and crystal structures of the conductive layered triangular-lattice antiferromagnet PdCrO2 with a putative spin chirality, which contributes to an unconventional anomalous Hall effect. We revealed that the ground-state magnetic structure is a commensurate and nearly-coplanar 120-degrees spin structure. The 120-degrees plane in different Cr layers seem to tilt with one another, leading to a small noncoplanarity. Such a small but finite non-coplanar stacking of the 120-de…
We theoretically report an instability toward a skyrmion crystal in centrosymmetric magnets under hexagonal and trigonal single-ion anisotropy. The results are obtained for a minimal spin model with a crystal-dependent single-ion anisotropy on a triangular lattice by performing simulated annealing. By constructing magnetic phase diagrams in the presence of six different types of single-ion anisotropy while changing the amplitudes of external magnetic field and single-ion anisotropy in a systematic way, we find that the hexagonal and trigonal single-ion anisotropy becomes a source of the skyrmi…
We report a high-resolution neutron diffraction study of the crystal and magnetic structure of the orbitally-degenerate frustrated metallic magnet AgNiO2. At high temperatures the structure is hexagonal with a single crystallographic Ni site, low-spin Ni3+ with spin-1/2 and two-fold orbital degeneracy, arranged in an antiferromagnetic triangular lattice with frustrated spin and orbital order. A structural transition occurs upon cooling below 365 K to a tripled hexagonal unit cell containing three crystallographically-distinct Ni sites with expanded and contracted NiO6 octahedra, naturally expl…
Here, we report the synthesis and magnetic properties of a Yb-based triangular-lattice compound LiYbS$_2$. At low temperatures, it features an effective spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ state due to the combined effect of crystal electric field and spin orbit coupling. Magnetic susceptibility measurements and $^7$Li nuclear magnetic resonance experiments reveal the absence of magnetic long range ordering down to 2~K, which suggests a possible quantum spin liquid ground state. A dominant antiferromagnetic nearest neighbour exchange interaction $J/k_{\rm B}\simeq$ 5.3~K could be extracted form the magnetic su…
The rare-earth magnet TmMgGaO$_{4}$ is proposed to be an intrinsic quantum Ising magnet described by the antiferromagnetic transverse field Ising model (TFIM) on a triangular lattice, where the relevant degrees of freedom are the non-degenerate dipole-multipole doublets of the Tm$^{3+}$ ions and the transverse field has an intrinsic origin from the weak splitting of the doublet. We compare this special doublet of Tm$^{3+}$ with the dipole-octupole Kramers doublet. We study the proposed effective model for the Tm-based triangular lattice and consider the effects of external magnetic fields and …
Coupling between spin and lattice degrees of freedom are important in geometrically frustrated magnets where they can lead to degeneracy lifting and novel orders. We show that moderate spin-lattice couplings in triangular and Kagome antiferromagnets can induce complex colinear magnetic orders. When classical Heisenberg spins on the triangular lattice are coupled to Einstein phonons, a rich variety of phases emerge, including the experimentally observed four sublattice state and the five sublattice 1/5th plateau state seen in the magneto-electric material CuFeO$_2$. In addition we predict magne…
The spin dynamics and magnetic excitations of the slightly distorted triangular s = 3/2 system alpha-CaCr2O4 are investigated by means of Raman spectroscopy and electron spin resonance (ESR) to elucidate its peculiar magnetic properties. Two-magnon excitations in circular RL symmetry show a multi-maximum structure with a dominant spectral weight at low energies. The temperature dependence of the ESR linewidth is described by a critical broadening DeltaHpp(T) ~ (T - T_N)^{-p} with the exponent p = 0.30(3) - 0.38(5) for temperatures above T_N = 42.6 K. The exponent is much smaller than that of o…
Magnetic exchange couplings can be tuned by coupling to periodic light, where the frequency and amplitude are typically varied: a process known as Floquet engineering. The polarization of the light is also important, and in this paper, we show how different polarizations, including several types of unpolarized light, can tune the exchange couplings in distinct ways. Using unpolarized light, for example, it is possible to tune the material without breaking either time-reversal or any lattice symmetries. To illustrate these effects generically, we consider single-band Hubbard models at half-fill…
