Copper Tellurium Oxides - A Playground for Magnetism

TL;DR

This paper reviews copper tellurium oxide minerals, highlighting their unique magnetic properties and the potential for discovering novel magnetic behaviors, emphasizing the largely unexplored nature of these materials.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the crystalline symmetry and magnetic characteristics of copper tellurium oxides, identifying gaps and opportunities for future research.

Findings

Many minerals exhibit unusual magnetism

Potential for discovering novel spin liquid behavior

Most minerals have unstudied magnetic properties

Abstract

A variety of copper tellurium oxide minerals are known, and many of them exhibit either unusual forms of magnetism, or potentially novel spin liquid behavior. Here, I review a number of the more interesting materials with a focus on their crystalline symmetry and, if known, the nature of their magnetism. Many of these exist (so far) in mineral form only, and most have yet to have their magnetic properties studied. This means a largely unexplored space of materials awaits our exploration.