entanglement and frustration in nickel molybdate crystals (IMAGE)

Rice University

entanglement and frustration in nickel molybdate crystals

Caption

(Left panel) In nickel molybdate crystals made of two parts nickel, three parts molybdenum and eight parts oxygen, nickel ions are subject to both tetrahedral and octahedral crystalline environments, and the ions are locked in triangular lattices in each environment. (Right panel) Crystal electric field spin excitons from tetrahedral sites in nickel molybdate crystals form a dispersive, diffusive pattern around the Brillouin zone boundary, likely due to spin entanglement and geometric frustrations. Left and right halves of the panel show different model calculations of these patterns.

Credit

Credit: Bin Gao/Rice University

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Must credit: Bin Gao/Rice University

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