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arXiv · 1303.1235

Li$_2$RhO$_3$: A spin-glassy relativistic Mott insulator

Abstract

Motivated by the rich interplay among electronic correlation, spin-orbit coupling (SOC), crystal-field splitting, and geometric frustrations in the honeycomb-like lattice, we systematically investigated the electronic and magnetic properties of Li$_2$RhO$_3$. The material is semiconducting with a narrow band gap of $\Delta\sim$78 meV, and its temperature dependence of resistivity conforms to 3D variable range hopping mechanism. No long-range magnetic ordering was found down to 0.5 K, due to the geometric frustrations. Instead, single atomic spin-glass behavior below the spin-freezing temperature ($\sim$6 K) was observed and its spin dynamics obeys the universal critical slowing down scaling law. First principle calculations suggested it to be a relativistic Mott insulator mediated by both electronic correlation and SOC. With moderate strength of electronic correlation and SOC, our results shed new light to the research of Heisenberg-Kitaev model in realistic materials.

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Yongkang Luo, Chao Cao, Bingqi Si, Yuke Li, Jinke Bao, Hanjie Guo, Xiaojun Yang, Chenyi Shen, Chunmu Feng, Jianhui Dai, Guanghan Cao, Zhu-an Xu. 2013-03-06. Li$_2$RhO$_3$: A spin-glassy relativistic Mott insulator. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.87.161121

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