Magnetic and Electronic Structure of CuTeO4

Cu2+ based materials have been extensively studied over the past decades due to their importance in high temperature superconductivity as well as their potential as quantum spin liquids. Recently,¹ CuTeO₄ has been proposed as a candidate material that combines a geometrically frustrated triangular lattice with potential high temperature superconductivity upon doping. To date, CuTeO4 has only been made as a secondary phase while making other Copper Tellurates, under extreme hydrothermal conditions over months ². We developed a novel method of synthesizing CuTeO4 in single phase form, enabling us to characterize its physical properties by magnetization, heat capacity, and neutron diffraction. CuTeO4 was initially predicted to have a quasi-2D Neel ground state. Our magnetic susceptibility data shows no long range ordering with an upturn at T=50K and an intriguing hump around T=120K indicative of low dimensional antiferromagnetic interactions. Heat capacity data shows no magnetic transition at T=50K, an inconsistency that needs to be explored further. With the bulk characterization to date, CuTeO4 seems to be a prime candidate for low-dimensional magnetism.

1. Antia S. Botana, Michael R. Norman, Phys. Rev. B 95 (2017)
2. L. Falck, O. Lindqvist, J. Moret, Acta Crystallogr. B 34 (1978)