A rare-earth Kitaev material candidate YbCl<sub>3</sub>

ORAL

Abstract


Most of the searches for Kitaev materials deal with 4d/5d magnets with spin-orbit-coupled J = ½ local moments such as iridates and α-RuCl3. Here we propose a new Kitaev material candidate YbCl3. We perform thermodynamic, ac susceptibility and angle-dependent torque measurements on a YbCl3 single crystal. We find that the Yb3+ ion exhibits a Kramers doublet ground state that gives rise to an effective spin Jeff = ½ local moment with likely strong anisotropic exchange interactions. The compound exhibits short-range magnetic ordering at around 1.20 K followed by long-range ordering at 0.60 K. These orderings can be suppressed by in-plane and out-of-plane magnetic fields, resulting in a quantum critical point at around 6 and 10 T, respectively. Furthermore, the non-monotonic decrease of Neel temperature under out-of-plane magnetic fields and the 99.8% of ground state entropy release across the short-range ordering, strongly suggest that YbCl3 is a close realization of a Kitaev system.

**Work at UCLA was supported by NSF DMREF-1629457. Work at UCSC was supported by DOE DE-SC0017862. Work at NHMFL is supported by NSF/DMR-1644779 and the State of Florida. G. C. acknowledges MOST Grant 2016YFA0301001 and 2016YFA0300500. H. C. acknowledges US DOE BES Early Career Award KC0402010.

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Presenters

  • Eve Emmanouilidou

    • Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California Los Angeles
    • Department of Physics and Astronomy and California Nano Systems Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
    • University of California Los Angeles

Authors

  • Eve Emmanouilidou

    • Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California Los Angeles
    • Department of Physics and Astronomy and California Nano Systems Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
    • University of California Los Angeles

  • Jie Xing

    • Department of Physics and Astronomy and California Nano Systems Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA

  • Huibo Cao

    • Oak Ridge National Lab
    • Oak Ridge National Laboratory
    • Neutron Scattering Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
    • Neutron Scattering Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
    • Neutron Scattering Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, USA
    • Oak Ridge Natl Lab

  • Chaowei Hu

    • Physics, University of California, Los Angeles
    • Physics and Astronomy, UCLA
    • Physics and Astronomy, Univerisity of California, Los Angeles
    • University of California, Los Angeles
    • Department of Physics and Astronomy and California NanoSystems Institute, University of California
    • Department of Physics and Astronomy and California Nano Systems Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
    • University of California Los Angeles

  • Jinyu Liu

    • Department of Physics and Astronomy and California Nano Systems Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
    • Tulane Univ
    • Tulane University

  • David E Graf

    • Florida State University
    • National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Florida State University
    • Department of Physics, National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Florida State University, Florida, USA
    • National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
    • National High Magnetic Field Lab, Florida State University
    • National High Magnetic Field Laboratory and Department of Physics, Florida State University
    • Florida State Univ
    • Natl High Magnetic Field Lab
    • National High Magnetic Field Lab, Tallahassee, FL 32310, USA
    • National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, 1800 E. Paul Dirac Drive, Tallahassee, FL 32310, USA
    • National High Magnetic Field Laboratory-Florida State University
    • National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Tallahassee, FL
    • NHMFL, Florida State University
    • NHMFL

  • Arthur Ramirez

    • University of California, Santa Cruz
    • Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA

  • Gang Chen

    • State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics and Department of Physics, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
    • Department of Physics and Center of Theoretical and Computational Physics, The University of Hong Kong

  • Ni Ni

    • Univ of California Los Angeles
    • Physics, University of California, Los Angeles
    • Physics and Astronomy, UCLA
    • Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California Los Angeles
    • University of California, Los Angeles
    • Department of Physics and Astronomy and California NanoSystems Institute, University of California
    • Department of Physics and Astronomy and California Nano Systems Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
    • University of California Los Angeles
    • Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles