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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Field-induced magnetic phases in the Kitaev candidate Na3Co2SbO6

Kranthi Kumar Bestha1,2,*,†, Manaswini Sahoo1,2,*, Niccolò Francini3, Robert Kluge1, Ryan Morrow1, Andrey Maljuk1, Sabine Wurmehl1, Sven Luther4, Yurii Skourski4 et al.

Hannes Kühne4, Swarnamayee Mishra2, Jochen Geck2, Manuel Brando5, Bernd Büchner1,2, Laura T. Corredor1,‡, Lukas Janssen3,§, and Anja U. B. Wolter1,∥

  • *These authors contributed equally to this work.
  • †Present address: High Field Magnet Laboratory (HFML-EMFL), Radboud University, Toernooiveld 7, Nijmegen 6525 ED, The Netherlands.
  • ‡Present address: Faculty of Physics, Technical University of Dortmund, Otto-Hahn-Str. 4, D-44227 Dortmund, Germany.
  • §Contact author: lukas.janssen@tu-dresden.de
  • ∥Contact author: a.wolter@ifw-dresden.de
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Phys. Rev. B 113, L100412 – Published 26 March, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/r454-vd8b

Abstract

We report a rich anisotropic magnetic phase diagram of Na3Co2SbO6, a previously proposed cobaltate Kitaev candidate, based on field- and temperature-dependent magnetization, specific heat, and magnetocaloric effect studies. At low temperatures, our experiments uncover a low-lying jeff=12 state with an antiferromagnetic (AFM) ground state and pronounced in-plane versus out-of-plane anisotropy. The experimentally identified magnetic phases are theoretically characterized through classical Monte Carlo simulations within an extended Kitaev-Heisenberg model with additional ring exchange interactions. The resulting phase diagram reveals a variety of exotic field-induced magnetic phases, including double-q, 13-AFM, zigzag, and vortex phases.

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Phys. Rev. B 113, L100412– Published 26 March, 2026
  • Received 16 October 2025
  • Accepted 24 February 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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