Controlling the stoichiometry of the triangular lattice antiferromagnet Li1+xZn2-yMo3O8
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Date
2017-09-12
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The Physical Society of Japan
Abstract
An intriguing topic in condensed matter physics is exploring exotic ground states in frustrated quantum systems, such astriangular-or kagome-lattice antiferromagnets. In these systems competing interactions destabilize conventional magnetic order and lead to interesting nonmagnetic states, exemplified by the quantum spin liquid or resonating valence bond state.The compound LiZn2Mo3O8(LZMO) is an antiferromagnet with magnetic Mo3O13 clusters forming triangular layers well separated from each other. It is proposed to realize a condensed valence bond state [1]. For the stoichiometric composition, these clusters have an unpaired electron (spin 1/2) and hence the system may be an ideal playground for exploring exotic ground states in quantum triangular antiferromagnet. However, chemical disorder atLi/Zn cites in LZMO easily leads to off-stoichiometry that introduces unoccupied S= 1/2 sites in the triangular lattice.Partial control of the Zn composition has been achieved by earlier efforts involving electrochemical technique[2], however,full stoichiometry control has not been achieved as far as we know. Since the stoichiometry is the key to explore intrinsic physics in the quantum S= 1/2 triangular antiferromagnet, we undertook a thorough investigation on the relation between initial and final chemical composition for the LZMO system. Several LZMO compounds were prepared using solid-state reaction technique [1] with widely varied starting composition. After the reactions, the samples were washed by hydrochloric acid to remove excess ZnO. The composition of the obtained compounds was determined as Li1+xZn2-yMo3O8from ICP mass spectroscopy (ArcosEOP, Spectro), X-ray diffraction (Rigaku) and neutron powder diffraction (Echidna, ANSTO). Composition dependence on the magnetism was investigated using the magnetic property measurement system (MPMS-XL, Quantum Design). © 2017 The Physical Society of Japan
Description
Keywords
Antiferromagnetism, Spin, X-ray diffraction, Neutron diffraction, Stoichiometry, Magnetic properties
Citation
Sandvik, K., Nawa, K., Okuyama, D., Reim, J., Avdeev, M., Matsuda, M., & Sato, T. J. (2017). Controlling the stoichiometry of the triangular lattice antiferromagnet Li1+xZn2-yMo3O8. Presented at the 2017 Autumn Meeting of the Physical Society of Japan, 12 - 24 September, Iwate University, Japan. In Collection of lecture summaries of the Physical Society of Japan, 2.2, 739. doi:10.11316/jpsgaiyo.72.2.0_739