Candidate quantum spin liquid in the Ce&lt;sup&gt;3+&lt;/sup&gt; pyrochlore stannate Ce&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;Sn&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O&lt;sub&gt;7&lt;/sub&gt;

Sibille, Romain; Lhotel, Elsa; Pomjakushin, Vladimir; Baines, Chris; Fennell, Tom; Kenzelmann, Michel

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.097202

Candidate quantum spin liquid in the Ce³⁺ pyrochlore stannate Ce₂Sn₂O₇

Sibille R, Lhotel E, Pomjakushin V, Baines C, Fennell T & Kenzelmann M

Citation

Sibille, R., Lhotel, E., Pomjakushin, V., Baines, C., Fennell, T., & Kenzelmann, M. (2015). Candidate quantum spin liquid in the Ce³⁺ pyrochlore stannate Ce₂Sn₂O₇. Physical Review Letters, 115(9), 097202 (5 pp.). https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.097202

Persistent URL https://www.dora.lib4ri.ch/psi/islandora/object/psi:7435

We report the low-temperature magnetic properties of Ce₂Sn₂O₇, a rare-earth pyrochlore. Our susceptibility and magnetization measurements show that due to the thermal isolation of a Kramers doublet ground state, Ce₂Sn₂O₇ has Ising-like magnetic moments of ∼1.18 μ_B. The magnetic moments are confined to the local trigonal axes, as in a spin ice, but the exchange interactions are antiferromagnetic. Below 1 K, the system enters a regime with antiferromagnetic correlations. In contrast to predictions for classical ⟨111⟩-Ising spins on the pyrochlore lattice, there is no sign of long-range ordering down to 0.02 K. Our results suggest that Ce₂Sn₂O₇ features an antiferromagnetic liquid ground state with strong quantum fluctuations.