Studying the Dynamic Magnetic Properties of the Triangular Antiferromagnet YbZnGaO4 in Applied Field

In the last few years Yb-based triangular antiferromagnets emerged as promising quantum spin liquid candidates, and subsequently their ground states have been the subject of ardent debates. Though many experimental and theoretical studies have been devoted to investigating the magnetic properties of these systems at very low temperatures, and exploring a range of possible explanations for the observed spin liquid-like phenomena, a definitive description remains elusive mainly due to thermal fluctuations and chemical disorder. In this talk we discuss neutron scattering experiments in applied magnetic field to probe features of the “partially magnetized” state in YbZnGaO4, which generated great excitement in YbMgGaO4 as a possible signature in support of spinon Fermi surface hypothesis [1].

[1] Shen, Y., Li, Y.-D., Walker, H.C., Steffens, P., Boehm, M., Zhang, X., Shen, S., Wo, H., Chen, G., and Zhao, J. Fractionalized excitations in the partially magnetized spin liquid candidate YbMgGaO4. Nat. Commun. 9, 4138 (2018).