Thermodynamics of the Breathing Kagome Antiferromagnet Nd₃BWO₉

The recently discovered family of rare-earth based kagome lattice antiferromagnets RE₃BWO₉ [1] with breathing anisotropy has been garnering much attention in the field of quantum magnetism. Here we present a thermodynamic study on single crystals of the spin-orbit entangled j_eff = 1/2 Kramers system Nd₃BWO₉ [2]. In spite of the significant frustration, we identify a transition to long range order at T_N = 0.3 K. Measurements of the specific heat, magnetization and magnetocaloric effect are carried out to map the entire H-T phase diagram and investigate effects of anisotropy. In this process, we uncover a series of intriguing ordered phases in applied magnetic fields. Our findings provide key insights relevant to any further study of this series of rare-earth based quantum magnets.

[1] M. Ashtar, J. Guo, Z. Wan, Y. Wang, G. Gong, Y. Liu, Y. Su, and Z. Tian, Inorg. Chem. 59, 5368 (2020).

[2] D. Flaviàn, J. Nagl, S. Hayashida, Z. Yan, S. Gvasaliya, and A. Zheludev, to be published.