Coupled spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic chain Cs$_2$LiRuCl$_6$ with partially disordered crystal lattice

TL;DR

This study reports the synthesis, crystal structure, and magnetic properties of Cs$_2$LiRuCl$_6$, revealing a partially disordered lattice and its behavior as a coupled one-dimensional antiferromagnet with anisotropic magnetization and a low-temperature magnetic phase transition.

Contribution

First synthesis and structural determination of Cs$_2$LiRuCl$_6$, demonstrating its partially disordered lattice and magnetic properties as a coupled 1D antiferromagnet.

Findings

Cs$_2$LiRuCl$_6$ has a hexagonal structure with partial site disorder.

The material behaves as a coupled 1D $S=1/2$ Heisenberg antiferromagnet.

Three-dimensional magnetic ordering occurs at 0.48 K.

Abstract

We determined the crystal structure of Cs$_2$LiRuCl$_6$, which was synthesized first in this work, and investigated its magnetic properties. Cs$_2$LiRuCl$_6$ has a hexagonal structure composed of linear chains of face-sharing RuCl$_6$ and LiCl$_6$ octahedra. In two-thirds of the structural chains, Ru$^{3+}$ and Li$^+$ sites are almost ordered, while in the other chains their sites are disordered. This situation is analogous to the ground state of the antiferromagnetic Ising model on a triangular lattice. Using electron paramagnetic resonance, we evaluated the $g$ factors of Ru$^{3+}$ with effective spin-1/2 as $g_c\,{=}\,2.72$ and $g_{ab}\,{=}\,1.50$ for magnetic fields $H$ parallel and perpendicular to the $c$ axis, respectively. Magnetization curves for $H\,{\parallel}\,c$ and $H\,{\perp}\,c$ are highly anisotropic. However, these magnetization curves approximately coincide when normalized by the $g$ factors. It was found from the magnetization and specific heat results that Cs$_2$LiRuCl$_6$ can be described as a coupled one-dimensional $S\,{=}\,1/2$ Heisenberg-like antiferromagnet with $J/k_{\rm B}\,{\simeq}\,3.7$ K. Three-dimensional ordering occurs at $T_{\rm N}\,{=}\,0.48$ K. A magnetic phase diagram for $H\,{\parallel}\,c$ is also presented.