Discovery of quantum phases in the Shastry-Sutherland compound SrCu₂(BO₃)₂ under extreme conditions of field and pressure
Abstract
The 2-dimensional layered oxide material SrCu₂(BO₃)₂, long studied as a realization of the Shastry-Sutherland spin topology, exhibits a range of intriguing physics as a function of both hydrostatic pressure and magnetic field, with a still debated intermediate plaquette phase appearing at approximately 20 kbar and a possible deconfined critical point at higher pressure. Here, we employ a tunnel diode oscillator (TDO) technique to probe the behavior in the combined extreme conditions of high pressure, high magnetic field, and low temperature. We reveal an extensive phase space consisting of multiple magnetic analogs of the elusive supersolid phase and a magnetization plateau. In particular, a 10 × 2 supersolid and a 1/5 plateau, identified by infinite Projected Entangled Pair States (iPEPS) calculations, are found to rely on the presence of both magnetic and non-magnetic particles in the sea of dimer singlets. These states are best understood as descendants of the full-plaquette phase, the leading candidate for the intermediate phase of SrCu₂(BO₃)₂.
Additional Information
© The Author(s) 2022. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Received 09 August 2021; Accepted 07 April 2022; Published 28 April 2022. We are grateful to Casey Marjerrison for her assistance with crystal growth activities at the early stages of this project. A portion of this work was performed at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, which is supported by the National Science Foundation Cooperative Agreement No. DMR-1157490 and DMR-1644779, the State of Florida and the U.S. Department of Energy. Z.S., S.D., W.S., and S.H. acknowledge support provided by funding from the Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award, and William M. Fairbank Chair in Physics at Duke University. D.M.S. and T.F.R. acknowledge support from US Department of Energy Basic Energy Sciences Award DE-SC0014866. P.C. and F.M. acknowledge the support provided by Swiss National Science Foundation and the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreements No 677061 and No 101001604). Data availability: The data that support the findings of this study are available within the paper and the Supplementary Information. Additional data related to this paper may be requested from the authors. Contributions: Research conceived by S.H.; Single-crystal SCBO samples grown by H.A.D. and S.H.; High-field measurements performed by Z.S., S.D., W.S., D.G., and S.H., and analyzed by Z.S., S.D., D.M.S., T.F.R., and S.H.; iPEPS calculations performed by P.C. and F.M.; manuscript written by Z.S., P.C., F.M., D.M.S., T.F.R., and S.H.; all authors commented on the manuscript. The authors declare no competing interests. Peer review information: Nature Communications thanks Masashi Takigawa, and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Peer reviewer reports are available.Attached Files
Published - s41467-022-30036-w.pdf
Submitted - 2107.02929.pdf
Supplemental Material - 41467_2022_30036_MOESM1_ESM.pdf
Supplemental Material - 41467_2022_30036_MOESM2_ESM.pdf
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Additional details
- Alternative title
- Discovery of quantum phases in the Shastry-Sutherland compound SrCu₂(BO₃)₂ under extreme conditions of field and pressure
- Alternative title
- Phase diagram of the Shastry-Sutherland Compound SrCu2(BO3)2 under extreme combined conditions of field and pressure
- Alternative title
- Phase diagram of the Shastry-Sutherland Compound SrCu2(BO3)2 under extreme combined conditions of field and pressure
- PMCID
- PMC9050886
- Eprint ID
- 114508
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20220428-200427277
- DMR-1157490
- NSF
- DMR-1644779
- NSF
- State of Florida
- Duke University
- DE-SC0014866
- Department of Energy (DOE)
- Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)
- 677061
- European Research Council (ERC)
- 101001604
- European Research Council (ERC)
- Created
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2022-04-28Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2023-06-27Created from EPrint's last_modified field