The vicinity of hyper-honeycomb β-Li2IrO3 to a three-dimensional Kitaev spin liquid state.

ABSTRACT: Due to the combination of a substantial spin-orbit coupling and correlation effects, iridium oxides hold a prominent place in the search for novel quantum states of matter, including, e.g., Kitaev spin liquids and topological Weyl states. We establish the promise of the very recently synthesized hyper-honeycomb iridate β-Li2IrO3 in this regard. A detailed theoretical analysis reveals the presence of large ferromagnetic first-neighbor Kitaev interactions, while a second-neighbor antiferromagnetic Heisenberg exchange drives the ground state from ferro to zigzag order via a three-dimensional Kitaev spin liquid and an incommensurate phase. Experiment puts the system in the latter regime but the Kitaev spin liquid is very close and reachable by a slight modification of the ratio between the sec

SUBMITTER: Katukuri VM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4941717 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature