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One-ninth magnetization plateau stabilized by spin entanglement in a kagome antiferromagnet

Nature Physics volume 20, pages 435–441 (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

The spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on a kagome lattice is geometrically frustrated, which is expected to promote the formation of many-body quantum entangled states. The most sought-after among these is the quantum spin-liquid phase, but magnetic analogues of liquid, solid and supersolid phases may also occur, producing fractional plateaus in the magnetization. Here, we investigate the experimental realization of these predicted phases in the kagome material YCu3(OD)6+xBr3−x (x ≈ 0.5). By combining thermodynamic and Raman spectroscopic techniques, we provide evidence for fractionalized spinon excitations and observe the emergence of a 1/9 magnetization plateau. These observations establish YCu3(OD)6+xBr3−x as a model material for exploring the 1/9 plateau phase.

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Fig. 1: Magnetic specific heat and thermal conductivity of YCu3(OD)6.5Br2.5.
Fig. 2: Spinon continuum and dynamic Raman susceptibility of YCu3(OD)6.5Br2.5.
Fig. 3: Power-law analysis of magnetic Raman susceptibility.
Fig. 4: High-field magnetization and 1/9 magnetization plateau.

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All relevant data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors on reasonable request. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

The work at Sungkyunkwan University was supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea (grant nos. RS-2023-00209121 and 2020R1A5A1016518). This research was supported by the SungKyunKwan University and the BK21 FOUR (Graduate School Innovation) funded by the Ministry of Education (MOE, Korea) and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF). The work at Seoul National University was financially supported by the NRF of Korea funded by the Korean government (grant no. 2019R1A2C2090648), as well as from the Ministry of Education (grant no. 2021R1A6C101B418). A portion of this work was performed at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, which is supported by the National Science Foundation (cooperative agreement no. DMR-1644779), the State of Florida and the US Department of Energy. M.L. is supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science and National Quantum Information Science Research Centers. D.W. acknowledges support from the Institute of Basic Science (IBS-R009-Y3). S.L. and S.C. acknowledge support from the Institute of Basic Science (IBS-R011-Y3). The work at the Korea Research Institute of the Max Planck Institute and Pohang University of Science and Technology was supported through the NRF funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning of Korea (grant no. 2022M3H4A1A04074153). A portion of the research was performed in the GIMRT program at IMR, Tohoku University. Additionally, M.L. expresses gratitude to G. Timothy Noe II for making a single-wall fridge for use in this experiment.

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Sungmin Jeon, Dirk Wulferding.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Republic of Korea

    Sungmin Jeon, Seungyeol Lee & Kwang-Yong Choi

  2. Center for Correlated Electron Systems, Institute for Basic Science, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Dirk Wulferding

  3. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Dirk Wulferding

  4. Department of Energy Science, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Republic of Korea

    Youngsu Choi

  5. Center for Novel States of Complex Materials Research, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Kiwan Nam & Kee Hoon Kim

  6. National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (NHMFL), Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM, USA

    Minseong Lee

  7. MPPHC-CPM, Max Planck POSTECH/Korea Research Initiative, Pohang, Republic of Korea

    Tae-Hwan Jang & Jae-Hoon Park

  8. Department of Physics, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, Republic of Korea

    Jae-Hoon Park

  9. Center for Integrated Nanostructure Physics, Institute for Basic Science, Suwon, Republic of Korea

    Suheon Lee & Sungkyun Choi

  10. Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Republic of Korea

    Suheon Lee & Sungkyun Choi

  11. Department of Physics, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Chanhyeon Lee

  12. Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

    Hiroyuki Nojiri

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  1. Sungmin Jeon
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Contributions

The experimental project was conceived by K.-Y.C. and S.M.J., who synthesized the single crystals and conducted the magnetic susceptibility measurements. D.W., Y.S.C., S.Y.L. and K.-Y.C. performed the Raman scattering experiments and analysed the Raman data. K.W.N. and K.H.K. measured the thermal conductivity and analysed the thermal conductivity data. M.L. and H.N. carried out the pulsed-field magnetization experiments. T.-H.J., J.-H.P., S.H.L. and S.K.C. measured the specific heat and analysed the specific heat data. C.H.L. performed the NMR experiments. The manuscript was written through the contributions of all authors.

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Correspondence to Kwang-Yong Choi.

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Nature Physics thanks Thuc Mai and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Figs. 1–11 and Sections 1–7.

Source data

Source Data Fig. 1

ASCII data of specific heat, magnetic entropy and thermal conductivity.

Source Data Fig. 2

ASCII data of Raman spectrum, dynamic Raman susceptibility and JPG files of their colour plots.

Source Data Fig. 3

ASCII data of low-frequency Raman spectrum, dynamic Raman susceptibility and the exponent extracted from power-law fits.

Source Data Fig. 4

ASCII data of magnetization curves.

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Jeon, S., Wulferding, D., Choi, Y. et al. One-ninth magnetization plateau stabilized by spin entanglement in a kagome antiferromagnet. Nat. Phys. 20, 435–441 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-023-02318-7

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