Introduction of a New Complete-Exchange Honeycomb Layered Compound

Kitaev spin liquid candidates have attracted considerable attention from the condensed matter community due to their desirable applications in the field of quantum computation. Obtaining a better understanding of their structural and thermodynamic properties, and gaining precise control over the synthesis in this family of materials, would grant access to their complex quantum nature. Here, I will introduce a new complete-exchange honeycomb layered material similar to Cu₂IrO₃. I will present the results of x-ray Rietveld refinement, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX) measurements to confirm the newly synthesized exchange compound is another example of a complete exchange reaction. Then, I will discuss the magnetic properties of the material as well as the heat-capacity data down to 85 mK. Although there is no clear sign of magnetic ordering in any of the measurements, the main source of this behavior will be discussed in the context of x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) measurements.