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arXiv · 2409.14077

Pressure-dependent magnetism of the Kitaev candidate Li$_2$RhO$_3$

Bin Shen·Efrain Insuasti Pazmino·Ramesh Dhakal·Friedrich Freund·Philipp Gegenwart·Stephen M. Winter·Alexander A. Tsirlin
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Abstract

We use magnetization measurements under pressure along with \textit{ab initio} and cluster many-body calculations to investigate magnetism of the Kitaev candidate Li$_2$RhO$_3$. Hydrostatic compression leads to a decrease in the magnitude of the nearest-neighbor ferromagnetic Kitaev coupling $K_1$ and the corresponding increase in the off-diagonal anisotropy $\Gamma_1$, whereas the experimental Curie-Weiss temperature changes from negative to positive with the slope of +40~K/GPa. On the other hand, spin freezing persists up to at least 3.46~GPa with the almost constant freezing temperature of 5~K that does not follow the large changes in the exchange couplings and indicates the likely extrinsic origin of spin freezing. Magnetic frustration in Li$_2$RhO$_3$ is mainly related to the interplay between ferromagnetic $K_1$ and antiferromagnetic $\Gamma_1$, along with the weakness of the third-neighbor coupling $J_3$ that would otherwise stabilize zigzag order. The small $J_3$ distinguishes Li$_2$RhO$_3$ from other Kitaev candidates.

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Bin Shen, Efrain Insuasti Pazmino, Ramesh Dhakal, Friedrich Freund, Philipp Gegenwart, Stephen M. Winter, Alexander A. Tsirlin. 2024-09-21. Pressure-dependent magnetism of the Kitaev candidate Li$_2$RhO$_3$. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41535-025-00730-1

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