• Accepted Paper

Site-selective renormalization and competing magnetic instabilities in paramagnetic Y3Cu2Sb3O14

Yanpeng Zhou and Gang Li

Phys. Rev. B - Accepted 8 September, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/dmg9-pzrv

Abstract

Quantum spin liquids (QSLs) are exotic phases of matter characterized by long-range entanglement and the absence of magnetic order even at zero temperature. Here, we present a comprehensive theoretical study of the frustrated magnet Y3Cu2Sb3O14 to elucidate its electronic and magnetic properties. We uncover completely opposite crystal-field splittings of the two inequivalent Cu sites owing to their fundamentally distinct oxygen coordination - trigonal distorted octahedral CuO6 and axially compressed CuO8. This inversion places the unpaired hole in the dz2 orbital at the Cu-2 site, while Cu-1 maintains conventional dx2−y2/dxy character, which results in a selective band-renormalization of orbitals from the two Cu ions. We further find multiple magnetic instabilities competing with nearly equal strength in this system: the spin susceptibility lacks dominant peaks, and the leading eigenvalues approach unity simultaneously across all wavevectors with increasing interactions. This competitive interplay, originating from the distinct local environments and geometric frustration on the triangular lattice, agrees well with the absence of long-range magnetic order in experiment. Our results support Y3Cu2Sb3O14 as a promising QSL candidate where the unique combination of disparate crystal-field environments, strong correlations, and competing exchange interactions conspire to stabilize an exotic quantum ground state.

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