Magnetic properties and signatures of ordering in triangular lattice antiferromagnet KCeO2

Mitchell M Bordelon; Xiaoling Wang; Daniel M Pajerowski; Arnab Banerjee; Mark Sherwin; Craig M Brown; M S Eldeeb; T Petersen; L Hozoi; U K Rӧßler; Martin Mourigal; Stephen D Wilson

doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.104.094421

Magnetic properties and signatures of ordering in triangular lattice antiferromagnet KCeO₂

Phys Rev B. 2021 Sep;104(9):10.1103/PhysRevB.104.094421. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevB.104.094421.

Authors

Mitchell M Bordelon¹, Xiaoling Wang², Daniel M Pajerowski³, Arnab Banerjee⁴, Mark Sherwin², Craig M Brown^{5

6}, M S Eldeeb⁷, T Petersen⁷, L Hozoi⁷, U K Rӧßler⁷, Martin Mourigal⁸, Stephen D Wilson¹

Affiliations

¹ Materials Department, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA.
² Department of Physics and Center for Terahertz Science and Technology, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA.
³ Neutron Scattering Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, USA.
⁴ Department of Physics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47906, USA.
⁵ Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware 19716, USA.
⁶ Center for Neutron Research, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899, USA.
⁷ Institute for Theoretical Solid State Physics, Leibniz IFW Dresden, Helmholtzstrasse 20, 01069 Dresden, Germany.
⁸ School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, USA.

Abstract

The magnetic ground state and the crystalline electric field level scheme of the triangular lattice antiferromagnet ${KCeO}_{2}$ are investigated. Below $T_{N} = 300$ mK, ${KCeO}_{2}$ develops signatures of magnetic order in specific heat measurements and low energy inelastic neutron scattering data. Trivalent ${Ce}^{3 +}$ ions in the $D_{3 d}$ local environment of this compound exhibit large splittings among the lowest three $4 f^{1}$ Kramers doublets defining for the free ion the $J = 5 / 2$ sextet and a ground state doublet with dipole character, consistent with recent theoretical predictions in M. S. Eldeeb et al. Phys. Rev. Materials 4, 124001 (2020). An unexplained, additional local mode appears, and potential origins of this anomalous mode are discussed.

Grants and funding

9999-NIST/ImNIST/Intramural NIST DOC/United States