NMR study of the spin excitations in the frustrated antiferromagnet Yb(BaBO$_3$)$_3$ with a triangular lattice

TL;DR

This study uses NMR to investigate spin excitations in the frustrated triangular-lattice antiferromagnet Yb(BaBO$_3$)$_3$, revealing gapless excitations at low fields and a field-dependent excitation gap, indicating a potential quantum spin liquid phase.

Contribution

First NMR analysis of Yb(BaBO$_3$)$_3$ revealing its unconventional spin excitation behavior and possible quantum disordered state.

Findings

No magnetic order or spin freezing down to 0.26 K.

Observation of temperature-independent spin-lattice relaxation rates at low fields.

Detection of a field-dependent spin excitation gap.

Abstract

In this paper, we study the spin excitation properties of the frustrated triangular-lattice antiferromagnet Yb(BaBO$_3$)$_3$ with nuclear magnetic resonance. From the spectral analysis, neither magnetic ordering nor spin freezing is observed with temperature down to $T=0.26$ K, far below its Curie-Weiss temperature $|\theta_w|\sim2.3$ K. From the nuclear relaxation measurement, precise temperature-independent spin-lattice relaxation rates are observed at low temperatures under a weak magnetic field, indicating the gapless spin excitations. Further increasing the field intensity, we observe a spin excitation gap with the gap size proportional to the field intensity. These phenomena suggest a very unusual strongly correlated quantum disordered phase, and the implications for the quantum spin liquid state are further discussed.