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arXiv · 2608.04782

Lifting the degeneracy of quantum spin liquid phase by uniaxial pressure

Shams Sohel Islam·Zurab Guguchia·Orion Gerguri·Petr Král·Maxime Lamotte·Toni Shiroka·Jonas A. Krieger·Thomas J. Hicken·Tina Arh·Gediminas Simutis·Abanoub Hanna·Nazmul Islam·Bella Lake·Hubertus Luetkens·Hans Henning Klauss·Rajib Sarkar
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Abstract

We report muon spin relaxation/rotation ($\mu$SR) measurements of the candidate three-dimensional (3D) quantum spin liquid (QSL) PbCuTe$_2$O$_6$, hosting $S=1/2$ moments, under controlled in situ [110] uniaxial compression up to $\sigma_{[110]}=37.7$~MPa. A small directional lattice perturbation significantly modifies the local magnetic response, while above $\sigma_{\rm cr}\sim10.8$\,MPa the relaxation rates are strongly enhanced and the internal-field distribution is substantially broadened. These changes occur along with the local crystalline symmetry breaking. While, no evidence for conventional static long-range magnetic order is observed, the compression drives the system towards a structurally modified and strongly correlated state in which enhanced quasi-static correlations coexist with persistent slow spin dynamics. This work demonstrates a clean and symmetry-selective route to control frustrated exchange landscape and access hidden magnetic instabilities in a 3D QSL candidate opening up the possibilities to tune other correlated systems where intrinsic coupling between magnetic and lattice degrees of freedom are relevant.

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Shams Sohel Islam, Zurab Guguchia, Orion Gerguri, Petr Král, Maxime Lamotte, Toni Shiroka, Jonas A. Krieger, Thomas J. Hicken, Tina Arh, Gediminas Simutis, Abanoub Hanna, Nazmul Islam, Bella Lake, Hubertus Luetkens, Hans Henning Klauss, Rajib Sarkar. 2026-08-05. Lifting the degeneracy of quantum spin liquid phase by uniaxial pressure. https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.04782

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