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arXiv · 2606.23007

Spiral spin liquid resilient to quantization in the frustrated honeycomb antiferromagnet GdZnPO

Xun Chen·Rui Bian·Yuqian Zhao·Haijun Liao·Weiqiang Yu·Yi Cui·Yuesheng Li
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Abstract

Frustrated magnets host strong quantum fluctuations that can suppress conventional magnetic order and give rise to exotic quantum phases such as spin liquids. In some cases, however, quantum fluctuations lift classical degeneracies and stabilize ordered states via an order-by-quantum-disorder mechanism. The spin-7/2 honeycomb antiferromagnet GdZnPO has recently been proposed as a spiral spin-liquid candidate arising from cooperative fluctuations among a subextensively degenerate manifold of spiral states. Here, we investigate the local magnetization and spin dynamics in GdZnPO using nuclear magnetic resonance. In an intermediate field regime between $\sim$3 T and the saturation field ($\sim$12 T), we observe a spatially uniform magnetization and persistent low-energy spin dynamics down to 0.033 K, with no detectable symmetry breaking, providing spectroscopic evidence for a spin-liquid state. At lower fields below $\sim$3 T, a weak stripe order emerges below $\sim$0.25 K; however, strong fluctuations persist, as indicated by a nearly temperature-independent and unusually large spin-lattice relaxation rate in the low-temperature limit. Our results demonstrate that spin-7/2 quantization weakly lifts the spiral degeneracy, stabilizing subtle magnetic order while preserving robust dynamics and spin-liquid phenomenology. These findings establish GdZnPO as a promising platform for exploring spin liquids in high-spin frustrated magnets down to the lowest accessible temperatures.

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Xun Chen, Rui Bian, Yuqian Zhao, Haijun Liao, Weiqiang Yu, Yi Cui, Yuesheng Li. 2026-06-22. Spiral spin liquid resilient to quantization in the frustrated honeycomb antiferromagnet GdZnPO. https://doi.org/10.1103/nq3l-vbkb

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