A 3D quantum spin liquid has been discovered in the vicinity of a member of the langbeinite family. The material's specific crystalline structure and the resulting magnetic interactions induce an unusual behaviour that can be traced back to an island of liquidity. An international team has made this discovery with experiments at the ISIS neutron source and theoretical modelling on a nickel-langbeinite sample.
When spins in a crystal lattice cannot align to reach a minimum energy together, this is called magnetic frustration. If this frustration becomes large enough, the spins continue to fluctuate in a disordered way, even as the temperature approaches zero and the material behaves as a quantum spin liquid. Quantum spin liquids (QSLs) have remarkable properties, including topologically protected phenomena, potentially useful, for example, for future, particularly stable qubits. Initially, quantum spin liquids were mainly studied in two-dimensional structures, but the phenomenon can also occur in 3D structures, although much less frequently.
An international collaboration has now demonstrated this behaviour in a new class of materials with a 3D structure: Langbeinites are sulphate minerals, rarely found in nature; replacing one or two elements in the sum formula produces variations that all belong to this class of materials.
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