Ferromagnetically coupled Shastry-Sutherland quantum spin singlets in (CuCl)LaNb2O7.

ABSTRACT

A thorough crystal structure determination at very low temperature of (CuCl)LaNb2O7, originally proposed as a spin-1/2 square-lattice antiferromagnet, is reported thanks to the use of single-crystal x-ray diffraction and powder neutron diffraction. State-of-the-art calculations (maximum entropy method) reveal that (CuCl)LaNb2O7 is orthorhombic with Pbam symmetry. First-principles calculations demonstrate that the dominant magnetic interactions are antiferromagnetic between fourth nearest neighbors with a Cu-Cl-Cl-Cu exchange path, which lead to the formation of spin singlets. The two strongest interactions between the singlets are ferromagnetic, which makes (CuCl)LaNb2O7 the first system of ferromagnetically coupled Shastry-Sutherland quantum spin singlets.