Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Kitaev iridates are an important class of spin-orbit-entangled quantum materials, where bond-directional exchange generates strong magnetic frustration and unconventional correlated states. The α , β , γ − Li 2 IrO 3 family exhibit fragile and highly anisotropic magnetic behavior, including incommensurate counter-rotating order, strong field sensitivity, and pressure-driven electronic reconstruction. Understanding how chemical substitution perturbs these competing interactions provides a route toward probing the underlying frustrated magnetic state. Here, we study single crystals of β − Li 2 Ru x Ir 1− x O 3 with dilute Ru substitution, x ≲ 10%. Through magnetometry, resonant elastic X-ray scattering, a c -heat capacity, and muon spin relaxation/rotation, we show that weak magnetic disorder suppresses the incommensurate antiferromagnetic ground state. Instead, the system evolves into a bulk spin glass characterized by slow relaxation and frozen, local magnetic fields. Despite the loss of long-range order, the glassy state retains substantial directional anisotropy, evidenced by enhanced b -axis magnetic susceptibility and direction-dependent thermoremanent relaxation. Structural probes further indicate that Ru substitution leaves the hyperhoneycomb lattice largely undistorted while disrupting magnetic coherence, suggesting that disorder freezes spins within a still-active bond-directional exchange environment. In this picture, dilute Ru substitution provides a controlled pathway into an anisotropic Kitaev spin glass regime that preserves essential fingerprints of the underlying Kitaev exchange network.
Source: npj Quantum Materials
Institutions: University of California San Diego, Institute of Science and Technology Austria, TRIUMF, Argonne National Laboratory, Advanced Photon Source, Brookhaven National Laboratory, National Synchrotron Light Source II, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Advanced Light Source, Brigham Young University, University of California, Berkeley
Language: English
Subfield: Condensed Matter Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,890
Awards: G102163711, CAREER: Design, control, and understanding of lateral textures in strongly correlated heterostructures, G1285306620, G1286236842, G1286251239, G1769256354, G1847291448, G1863003419, G2287611682, G241279073, G262962599, G30714459, G3083819904, G3262563802, G357145406, G3589692066, Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP), G419881185, G426311843, G4501827968, G498139845, G513797252, G5387317844, G5535608740, G5765906131, G650090426, G6652958823, G6848031779, G6918803902, G6965541988, G737438257, G7463374569, G7583137537, G872144517, G969889393, G993149817
OpenAlex ID: W7127072276
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