SR and NMR studies on the van der Waals cluster magnet Nb3Cl8
Lin Yang(杨林)1,2,†, Detong Wu(吴德桐)3,4,1,†, Xin Han(韩鑫)1,2, Jun Luo(罗军)1,2, Bo Liu(刘波)1, Xiaoyan Ma(马肖燕)1, Huiqian Luo(罗会仟)1, Jie Yang(杨杰)1, Bing Shen(沈冰)3,4, Rhea Stewart5, Devashibhai Adroja5, Youguo Shi(石友国)1,6,7,‡, Rui Zhou(周睿)1,§, and Shiliang Li(李世亮)1,2,7,¶
1 Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; 2 School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; 3 Center for Neutron Science and Technology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Magnetoelectric Physics and Devices, School of Physics, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China; 4 State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China; 5 ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Didcot, OX11 0QX, UK; 6 Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; 7 Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, Dongguan 523808, China
Abstract The van der Waals cluster magnet NbCl has recently been shown to possibly host a quantum-spin-liquid ground state. The Nb ions in this compound form a breathing kagome structure, where the magnetic moment comes from three nearest Nb ions forming a molecular cluster with spin . Previous bulk measurements including magnetic susceptibility and specific heat suggested the existence of spinon Fermi surfaces. Here we further probe the spin system by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and muon spin rotation and relaxation (μSR) techniques. We confirm that there is no magnetic long-range order and the dynamical spin fluctuations persist down to 0.075 K. These results provide further evidence that NbCl may host a quantum spin liquid.
Fund: Project supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant Nos. 2022YFA1403800, 2022YFA1403400, 2021YFA1400400, 2023YFA1406100, and 2024YFA1409200), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 12274444, 12374142, and 12304170), and the Chinese Academy of Sciences President’s International Fellowship Initiative (Grant No. 2025PG0007). A portion of this work was carried out at the Synergetic Extreme Condition User Facility (SECUF, https://cstr.cn/31123.02.SECUF). We thank ISIS Facility for beam time (Grant No. RB2310088).
Corresponding Authors:
Youguo Shi, Rui Zhou, Shiliang Li
E-mail: ygshi@iphy.ac.cn;rzhou@iphy.ac.cn;slli@iphy.ac.cn
Cite this article:
Lin Yang(杨林), Detong Wu(吴德桐), Xin Han(韩鑫), Jun Luo(罗军), Bo Liu(刘波), Xiaoyan Ma(马肖燕), Huiqian Luo(罗会仟), Jie Yang(杨杰), Bing Shen(沈冰), Rhea Stewart, Devashibhai Adroja, Youguo Shi(石友国), Rui Zhou(周睿), and Shiliang Li(李世亮) SR and NMR studies on the van der Waals cluster magnet Nb3Cl8 2025 Chin. Phys. B 34 057501
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