Abstract
Single crystals of a honeycomb lattice antiferromagnet, , were synthesized, and the physical properties have been studied. From magnetometry, a long-range antiferromagnetic ordering at K with highly anisotropic magnetic behavior was found. Neutron powder diffraction confirms that the Tb spins lie along the -axis, parallel to the shortest Tb-Tb contact. Two field-induced spin-flip transitions are observed when the field is applied parallel to this axis, separated by a plateau corresponding roughly to . Transport measurements show the resistivity to be metallic with a discontinuity at the onset of Néel order. Heat capacity shows a -like transition confirming the bulk nature of the magnetism. We propose a phenomenological spin Hamiltonian that describes the magnetization plateau as a result of strong Ising character arising from a quasidoublet ground state of the ion in a site of symmetry and expressing a significant bond-dependent anisotropy.
2 More- Received 22 June 2019
- Revised 20 September 2019
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.3.114411
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