The investigation of frustrated magnetism in the triangular lattice <i>ARE</i>Se₂ single crystals

A large class of compounds with the formula of AREQ₂ (A = Alkali metal, RE= rare earth, Q = O, S, Se) has been proposed as a good platform for investigating frustrated magnetic ground states[1-3]. The rare earth ions construct the ideal triangular layers, which are separated by A ions. We successfully synthesized ARESe₂ single crystals by the salt flux and performed magnetization, heat capacity, and neutron diffraction measurement down to 0.05 K. Antiferromagnetic interaction with large magnetic anisotropy was observed in this system. Yb based compounds present possible QSL ground state at low field. The stripe AFM ground state is found in KErSe₂ from the neutron diffraction. All these results reveal this family is an interesting system for the study of frustrated magnetism with rare earth ions.

*Work at ORNL was supported by U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences (BES), Materials Science and Engineering Division.

[1] W. Liu, et al. Chin. Phys. Lett. 35, 117501 (2019).
[2] M. Baenitz. et al. Phys. Rev. B 98, 220409 (2019).
[3] M. Bordelon, et al. Nature Physics 15. 1058 (2019).