IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v16y2025i1d10.1038_s41467-025-57319-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Observation of the spiral spin liquid in a triangular-lattice material

Author

Listed:
  • N. D. Andriushin

    (Technische Universität Dresden)

  • S. E. Nikitin

    (Paul Scherrer Institut)

  • Ø. S. Fjellvåg

    (Paul Scherrer Institut
    Institute for Energy Technology)

  • J. S. White

    (Paul Scherrer Institut)

  • A. Podlesnyak

    (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

  • D. S. Inosov

    (Technische Universität Dresden
    TU Dresden)

  • M. C. Rahn

    (Technische Universität Dresden
    University of Augsburg)

  • M. Schmidt

    (Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids)

  • M. Baenitz

    (Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids)

  • A. S. Sukhanov

    (Technische Universität Dresden
    University of Augsburg)

Abstract

The spiral spin liquid (SSL) is a highly degenerate state characterized by a continuous contour or surface in reciprocal space spanned by a spiral propagation vector. Although the SSL state has been predicted in a number of various theoretical models, very few materials are so far experimentally identified to host such a state. Via combined single-crystal wide-angle and small-angle neutron scattering, we report observation of the SSL in the quasi-two-dimensional delafossite-like AgCrSe2. We show that it is a very close realization of the ideal Heisenberg J1–J2–J3 frustrated model on the triangular lattice. By supplementing our experimental results with microscopic spin-dynamics simulations, we demonstrate how such exotic magnetic states are driven by thermal fluctuations and exchange frustration.

Suggested Citation

  • N. D. Andriushin & S. E. Nikitin & Ø. S. Fjellvåg & J. S. White & A. Podlesnyak & D. S. Inosov & M. C. Rahn & M. Schmidt & M. Baenitz & A. S. Sukhanov, 2025. "Observation of the spiral spin liquid in a triangular-lattice material," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-8, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-57319-2
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-57319-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-57319-2
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-025-57319-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Leon Balents, 2010. "Spin liquids in frustrated magnets," Nature, Nature, vol. 464(7286), pages 199-208, March.
    2. Shang Gao & H. Diego Rosales & Flavia A. Gómez Albarracín & Vladimir Tsurkan & Guratinder Kaur & Tom Fennell & Paul Steffens & Martin Boehm & Petr Čermák & Astrid Schneidewind & Eric Ressouche & Danie, 2020. "Fractional antiferromagnetic skyrmion lattice induced by anisotropic couplings," Nature, Nature, vol. 586(7827), pages 37-41, October.
    3. Yao Shen & Yao-Dong Li & Hongliang Wo & Yuesheng Li & Shoudong Shen & Bingying Pan & Qisi Wang & H. C. Walker & P. Steffens & M. Boehm & Yiqing Hao & D. L. Quintero-Castro & L. W. Harriger & M. D. Fro, 2016. "Evidence for a spinon Fermi surface in a triangular-lattice quantum-spin-liquid candidate," Nature, Nature, vol. 540(7634), pages 559-562, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Han Li & Enze Lv & Ning Xi & Yuan Gao & Yang Qi & Wei Li & Gang Su, 2024. "Magnetocaloric effect of topological excitations in Kitaev magnets," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.
    2. Quanzhen Zhang & Wen-Yu He & Yu Zhang & Yaoyao Chen & Liangguang Jia & Yanhui Hou & Hongyan Ji & Huixia Yang & Teng Zhang & Liwei Liu & Hong-Jun Gao & Thomas A. Jung & Yeliang Wang, 2024. "Quantum spin liquid signatures in monolayer 1T-NbSe2," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    3. Hikaru Takeda & Masataka Kawano & Kyo Tamura & Masatoshi Akazawa & Jian Yan & Takeshi Waki & Hiroyuki Nakamura & Kazuki Sato & Yasuo Narumi & Masayuki Hagiwara & Minoru Yamashita & Chisa Hotta, 2024. "Magnon thermal Hall effect via emergent SU(3) flux on the antiferromagnetic skyrmion lattice," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-8, December.
    4. Roméo Juge & Naveen Sisodia & Joseba Urrestarazu Larrañaga & Qiang Zhang & Van Tuong Pham & Kumari Gaurav Rana & Brice Sarpi & Nicolas Mille & Stefan Stanescu & Rachid Belkhou & Mohamad-Assaad Mawass , 2022. "Skyrmions in synthetic antiferromagnets and their nucleation via electrical current and ultra-fast laser illumination," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.
    5. Cheng-Hsiang Hsu & Miela J. Gross & Hannah Calzi Kleidermacher & Shehrin Sayed & Sayeef Salahuddin, 2024. "Tunable multistate field-free switching and ratchet effect by spin-orbit torque in canted ferrimagnetic alloy," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    6. Imara Lima Fernandes & Stefan Blügel & Samir Lounis, 2022. "Spin-orbit enabled all-electrical readout of chiral spin-textures," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-10, December.
    7. Ying Xiang & Qing Li & Yongkai Li & Wei Xie & Huan Yang & Zhiwei Wang & Yugui Yao & Hai-Hu Wen, 2021. "Twofold symmetry of c-axis resistivity in topological kagome superconductor CsV3Sb5 with in-plane rotating magnetic field," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-8, December.
    8. Q. Stahl & T. Ritschel & G. Garbarino & F. Cova & A. Isaeva & T. Doert & J. Geck, 2024. "Pressure-tuning of α-RuCl3 towards a quantum spin liquid," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-8, December.
    9. Schmidt, M. & Zimmer, F.M. & Magalhaes, S.G., 2015. "Spin glass induced by infinitesimal disorder in geometrically frustrated kagome lattice," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 438(C), pages 416-423.
    10. Heng Niu & Han Gyu Yoon & Hee Young Kwon & Zhiyuan Cheng & Siqi Fu & Hongying Zhu & Bingfeng Miao & Liang Sun & Yizheng Wu & Andreas K. Schmid & Kai Liu & Changyeon Won & Haifeng Ding & Gong Chen, 2025. "Magnetic skyrmionic structures with variable topological charges in engineered Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction systems," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-10, December.
    11. Youngsu Choi & Suheon Lee & Je-Ho Lee & Seungyeol Lee & Maeng-Je Seong & Kwang-Yong Choi, 2021. "Bosonic spinons in anisotropic triangular antiferromagnets," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-8, December.
    12. Alejandro Lopez-Bezanilla & Jack Raymond & Kelly Boothby & Juan Carrasquilla & Cristiano Nisoli & Andrew D. King, 2023. "Kagome qubit ice," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
    13. S. A. Zvyagin & A. N. Ponomaryov & J. Wosnitza & D. Hirai & Z. Hiroi & M. Gen & Y. Kohama & A. Matsuo & Y. H. Matsuda & K. Kindo, 2022. "Dimensional reduction and incommensurate dynamic correlations in the $$S=\frac{1}{2}$$ S = 1 2 triangular-lattice antiferromagnet Ca3ReO5Cl2," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-6, December.
    14. Alessio Chiocchetta & Dominik Kiese & Carl Philipp Zelle & Francesco Piazza & Sebastian Diehl, 2021. "Cavity-induced quantum spin liquids," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-8, December.
    15. Xu-Guang Zhou & Han Li & Yasuhiro H. Matsuda & Akira Matsuo & Wei Li & Nobuyuki Kurita & Gang Su & Koichi Kindo & Hidekazu Tanaka, 2023. "Possible intermediate quantum spin liquid phase in α-RuCl3 under high magnetic fields up to 100 T," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-7, December.
    16. Amal Aldarawsheh & Imara Lima Fernandes & Sascha Brinker & Moritz Sallermann & Muayad Abusaa & Stefan Blügel & Samir Lounis, 2022. "Emergence of zero-field non-synthetic single and interchained antiferromagnetic skyrmions in thin films," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-10, December.
    17. Jagannath Jena & Börge Göbel & Tomoki Hirosawa & Sebastián A. Díaz & Daniel Wolf & Taichi Hinokihara & Vivek Kumar & Ingrid Mertig & Claudia Felser & Axel Lubk & Daniel Loss & Stuart S. P. Parkin, 2022. "Observation of fractional spin textures in a Heusler material," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-8, December.
    18. Zhawure Asilehan & Wentao Tang & Jing Zhang & Zijun Chen & Ruijie Wang & Qingtian Shi & Ganlin Song & Jinghua Jiang & Rui Zhang & Chenhui Peng, 2025. "Light-driven dancing of nematic colloids in fractional skyrmions and bimerons," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-13, December.
    19. Jiangang Yang & Xinwei Yi & Zhen Zhao & Yuyang Xie & Taimin Miao & Hailan Luo & Hao Chen & Bo Liang & Wenpei Zhu & Yuhan Ye & Jing-Yang You & Bo Gu & Shenjin Zhang & Fengfeng Zhang & Feng Yang & Zhimi, 2023. "Observation of flat band, Dirac nodal lines and topological surface states in Kagome superconductor CsTi3Bi5," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-8, December.
    20. Hangyu Zhou & Manuel dos Santos Dias & Youguang Zhang & Weisheng Zhao & Samir Lounis, 2024. "Kagomerization of transition metal monolayers induced by two-dimensional hexagonal boron nitride," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-57319-2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.