μSR insight into the impurity problem in quantum kagome antiferromagnets

Gomilšek, M.; Klanjšek, M.; Pregelj, M.; Luetkens, H.; Li, Y.; Zhang, Q.M.; Zorko, A.

doi:10.1103/physrevb.94.024438

μSR insight into the impurity problem in quantum kagome antiferromagnets

Gomilšek, M.; Klanjšek, M.; Pregelj, M.; Luetkens, H.; Li, Y.; Zhang, Q.M.; Zorko, A.

Authors

M. Gomilšek

M. Klanjšek

M. Pregelj

H. Luetkens

Y. Li

Q.M. Zhang

A. Zorko

Abstract

Impurities, which are unavoidable in real materials, may play an important role in the magnetism of frustrated spin systems with a spin-liquid ground state. We address the impurity issue in quantum kagome antiferromagnets by investigating ZnCu3(OH)6SO4 (Zn-brochantite) by means of muon spin spectroscopy. We show that muons dominantly couple to impurities, originating from Cu-Zn intersite disorder, and that the impurity spins are highly correlated with the kagome spins, allowing us to probe the host kagome physics via a Kondo-like effect. The low-temperature plateau in the impurity susceptibility suggests that the kagome spin-liquid ground state is gapless. The corresponding spin fluctuations exhibit an unconventional spectral density and a nontrivial field dependence.

Citation

Gomilšek, M., Klanjšek, M., Pregelj, M., Luetkens, H., Li, Y., Zhang, Q., & Zorko, A. (2016). μSR insight into the impurity problem in quantum kagome antiferromagnets. Physical review B, 94(2), Article 024438. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.94.024438

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Jul 7, 2016
Online Publication Date	Jul 29, 2016
Publication Date	Jul 29, 2016
Deposit Date	May 11, 2018
Journal	Physical Review B
Print ISSN	1098-0121
Electronic ISSN	1550-235X
Publisher	American Physical Society
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	94
Issue	2
Article Number	024438
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.94.024438
Public URL	https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1331445
Related Public URLs	https://arxiv.org/abs/1604.02916