Spin disorder on a triangular lattice.
As liquids crystallize into solids on cooling, spins in magnets generally form periodic order. However, three decades ago, it was theoretically proposed that spins on a triangular lattice form a liquidlike disordered state at low temperatures. Whether or not a spin liquid is stabilized by geometrical frustration has remained an active point of inquiry ever since. Our thermodynamic and neutron measurements on NiGa2S4, a rare example of a two-dimensional triangular lattice antiferromagnet, demonstrate that geometrical frustration stabilizes a low-temperature spin-disordered state with coherence beyond the two-spin correlation length. Spin liquid formation may be an origin of such behavior.
Nakatsuji
Satoru
S
Department of Physics, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan. nakatsuji@scphys.kyoto-u.ac.jp
Nambu
Yusuke
Y
Tonomura
Hiroshi
H
Sakai
Osamu
O
Jonas
Seth
S
Broholm
Collin
C
Tsunetsugu
Hirokazu
H
Qiu
Yiming
Y
Maeno
Yoshiteru
Y