Signature of a randomness-driven spin-liquid state in a frustrated magnet

Collective behaviour of electrons, frustration induced quantum fluctuations and entanglement in quantum materials underlie some of the emergent quantum phenomena with exotic quasi-particle excitations that are highly relevant for technological applications. Herein, we present our thermodynamic and muon spin relaxation measurements, complemented by ab initio density functional theory and exact diagonalization results, on the recently synthesized frustrated antiferromagnet Li₄CuTeO₆, in which Cu²⁺ ions (S = 1/2) constitute disordered spin chains and ladders along the crystallographic [101] direction with weak random inter-chain couplings. Our thermodynamic experiments detect neither long-range magnetic ordering nor spin freezing down to 45 mK despite the presence of strong antiferromagnetic interaction between Cu²⁺ moments leading to a large effective Curie-Weiss temperature of −154 K. Muon spin relaxation results are consistent with thermodynamic results. The temperature and magnetic field scaling of magnetization and specific heat reveal a data collapse pointing towards the presence of random-singlets within a disorder-driven correlated and dynamic ground-state in this frustrated antiferromagnet.

J. Khatua, M. Gomilšek, J. C. Orain, A. M. Strydom, Z. Jagličić, C. V. Colin, S. Petit, A. Ozarowski, L. Mangin-Thro, K. Sethupathi, M. S. Ramachandra Rao, A. Zorko, P. Khuntia