Kitaev interactions through extended superexchange pathways in the [Formula: see text] Ru3+ honeycomb magnet RuP3SiO11

Aly H Abdeldaim; Hlynur Gretarsson; Sarah J Day; M Duc Le; Gavin B G Stenning; Pascal Manuel; Robin S Perry; Alexander A Tsirlin; Gøran J Nilsen; Lucy Clark

doi:10.1038/s41467-024-53900-3

Kitaev interactions through extended superexchange pathways in the $j_{eff} = 1 / 2$ Ru³⁺ honeycomb magnet RuP₃SiO₁₁

Nat Commun. 2024 Nov 15;15(1):9778. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-53900-3.

Authors

Aly H Abdeldaim^{1

2

3}, Hlynur Gretarsson⁴, Sarah J Day⁵, M Duc Le⁶, Gavin B G Stenning⁶, Pascal Manuel⁶, Robin S Perry^{6

7}, Alexander A Tsirlin⁸, Gøran J Nilsen^{9

10}, Lucy Clark¹¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemistry, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK. [email protected].
² ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, Didcot, Oxfordshire, OX11 0QX, UK. [email protected].
³ Diamond Light Source, Didcot, Oxfordshire, OX11 0DE, UK. [email protected].
⁴ Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Hamburg, D-22607, Germany.
⁵ Diamond Light Source, Didcot, Oxfordshire, OX11 0DE, UK.
⁶ ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, Didcot, Oxfordshire, OX11 0QX, UK.
⁷ London Centre for Nanotechnology and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, London, WC1E 6BT, UK.
⁸ Felix Bloch Institute for Solid-State Physics, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, 04103, Germany.
⁹ ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, Didcot, Oxfordshire, OX11 0QX, UK. [email protected].
¹⁰ Department of Mathematics and Physics, University of Stavanger, Stavanger, 4036, Norway. [email protected].
¹¹ School of Chemistry, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK. [email protected].

Abstract

Magnetic materials are composed of the simple building blocks of magnetic moments on a crystal lattice that interact via magnetic exchange. Yet from this simplicity emerges a remarkable diversity of magnetic states. Some reveal the deep quantum mechanical origins of magnetism, for example, quantum spin liquid (QSL) states in which magnetic moments remain disordered at low temperatures despite being strongly correlated through quantum entanglement. A promising theoretical model of a QSL is the Kitaev model, composed of unusual bond-dependent exchange interactions, but experimentally, this model is challenging to realise. Here we show that the material requirements for the Kitaev QSL survive an extended pseudo-edge-sharing superexchange pathway of Ru³⁺ octahedra within the honeycomb layers of the inorganic framework solid, RuP₃SiO₁₁. We confirm the requisite $j_{eff} = \frac{1}{2}$ state of Ru³⁺ in RuP₃SiO₁₁ and resolve the hierarchy of exchange interactions that provide experimental access to an unexplored region of the Kitaev model.