Structural and magnetic characterization of rare-earth antiferromagnets (RE = Pr, Nd, Sm-Tb) with frustrated spin-hexamer lattice
Phys. Rev. Materials 9, 114403 – Published 3 November, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/23n2-6kzy
Abstract
Geometrically frustrated spin systems continue to serve as a fertile ground for realizing nontrivial quantum states, making the exploration of new materials in this category a central pursuit. In this work, we report the synthesis and investigation of a new family of antiferromagnets, (RE = Pr, Nd, Sm–Tb). These compounds crystallize in the trigonal space group, where neighboring polyhedra share faces to form spatially confined spin hexamers. These hexamers interconnect within the plane to construct a two-dimensional frustrated triangular spin-hexamer lattice, featuring hierarchical spin interactions with strong intracluster and weak intercluster couplings. Magnetic susceptibility measurements down to 1.8 K reveal no signs of long-range magnetic order or spin freezing across the entire series, despite the presence of dominant antiferromagnetic interactions. Further magnetization studies on a representative member down to 0.4 K uncover a long-range antiferromagnetic transition at ∼0.91 K. Quasi-adiabatic demagnetization experiments on this material demonstrate outstanding cooling effect, reaching a pronounced temperature minimum at ∼146 mK near the antiferromagnetic critical field T. Notably, this temperature valley is markedly broadened over an extended field interval, indicating the presence of a quantum critical state near with persistent spin fluctuations. Altogether, represents a versatile platform of frustrated spin clusters, offering new possibilities for exploring unconventional magnetic ground states and potential cryogenic cooling applications.