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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Nature of quantum criticality in the Ising ferromagnet TbV6Sn6

Tianxiong Han1,2, R. D. McKenzie1,2, Joanna Blawat3, Tyler J. Slade1, Bing Li1,4, Y. Lee1, D. M. Pajerowski4, John Singleton3, Paul C. Canfield1,2 et al.

Liqin Ke1,5, Ross McDonald3, Rebecca Flint1,2, and R. J. McQueeney1,2,*

  • *Contact author: mcqueeney@ameslab.gov
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Phys. Rev. Research 7, L042045 – Published 26 November, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/jlnl-y35t

Abstract

TbV6Sn6 is a topological metal where ferromagnetic Tb ions with strong uniaxial magnetic anisotropy interact with V kagome layers. Inelastic neutron scattering (INS) measurements show that the Tb ions adopt an Ising doublet ground state. Here, we consider whether a transverse magnetic field can drive TbV6Sn6 toward a quantum critical point, providing a rare example of transverse-field Ising criticality in a metallic compound. High-field magnetization measurements reveal a first-order-like spin-reorientation transition at 25.6 T. Our INS-based magnetic model finds that this is caused by an avoided crossing of an excited-state singlet with the ground-state doublet. Surprisingly, our model predicts that quantum critical and tricritical points are accessible within the range of experimentally determined model parameters and may be reached by varying the direction of an applied magnetic field.

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Phys. Rev. Research 7, L042045– Published 26 November, 2025
  • Received 4 December 2024
  • Accepted 17 October 2025
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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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