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arXiv · 2506.22613

Magnetic dilution in the triangular lattice antiferromagnet NaYb$_{1-x}$Lu$_{x}$O$_2$

Steven J. Gomez Alvarado·Brenden R. Ortiz·Soren Bear·Benito A. Gonzalez·Andrea N. Capa Salinas·Adam Berlie·Michael J. Graf·Stephen D. Wilson
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Abstract

The delafossite-like compound NaYbO$_2$ hosts a triangular lattice of Yb$^{3+}$ moments and is a promising candidate for the realization of a quantum spin liquid ground state -- an exotic, quantum-disordered magnetic phase featuring long-range entanglement of spins. Tuning this system away from this quantum-disordered regime toward classical order or spin freezing is a powerful approach to shed light on the nature of the parent ground state. Here we leverage the substitution of nonmagnetic Lu$^{3+}$ onto the Yb$^{3+}$ sites to study the effects of magnetic disorder in NaYbO$_2$ using low-temperature ac susceptibility, heat capacity, and muon spin relaxation ($μ$SR) measurements. Our $μ$SR measurements reveal resilient, correlated magnetic fluctuations that persist to at least 15\% dilution, precluding conventional spin freezing and magnetic inhomogeneity. Heat capacity and magnetic susceptibility resolve a rapid suppression of the field-induced ``up-up-down'' magnetic order upon dilution and a crossover in the power-law behavior of the low-temperature magnetic excitations associated with the zero-field quantum disordered ground state. Taken together, these results support the notion of a robust network of entangled moments in NaYbO$_2$, and provides experimental validation of several models of a Heisenberg triangular lattice antiferromagnet in the presence of disorder.

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Steven J. Gomez Alvarado, Brenden R. Ortiz, Soren Bear, Benito A. Gonzalez, Andrea N. Capa Salinas, Adam Berlie, Michael J. Graf, Stephen D. Wilson. 2025-10-22. Magnetic dilution in the triangular lattice antiferromagnet NaYb$_{1-x}$Lu$_{x}$O$_2$. https://doi.org/10.1103/th1p-5rxt

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