Quantum paramagnetism in a non-Kramers rare-earth oxide: Monoclinic
Phys. Rev. Materials 7, 063401 – Published 16 June, 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.7.063401
Abstract
Little is so far known about the magnetism of the monoclinic layered perovskites that replace the spin-ice supporting pyrochlore structure for . We show that high quality monoclinic single crystals with a three-dimensional network of non-Kramers ions that interact through edge-sharing superexchange interactions, form a singlet ground-state quantum paramagnet that does not undergo any magnetic phase transitions down to, at least, 1.8 K. The chemical phase stability, structure, and magnetic properties of the layered perovskite were investigated using x-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and magnetization measurements. Synthesis of polycrystalline samples with the nominal compositions of () showed that deviations from the stoichiometry lead to secondary phases of related structures including the perovskite phase and the orthorhombic phases and . No indications of site disordering (stuffing and antistuffing) or vacancy defects were observed in the majority phase. A procedure for growth of high-structural-quality stoichiometric single crystals of by the traveling solvent floating zone method is reported. Thermomagnetic measurements of single-crystalline reveal an isolated singlet ground state that we associate with the low-symmetry crystal electric-field environments that split the ()-fold degenerate spin-orbital multiplets of the four differently coordinated ions into 36 isolated singlets resulting in an anisotropic temperature-independent van Vleck susceptibility at low . A small isotropic Curie term is associated with 0.96(2)% noninteracting impurities.