Antiferromagnetic Kitaev interaction in<i>J</i> _eff <b>=</b> 1/2 cobalt honeycomb materials Na₃Co₂SbO₆ and Na₂Co₂TeO₆

Abstract

Finding new materials with antiferromagnetic (AFM) Kitaev interaction is an urgent issue for quantum magnetism research. We conclude that Na₃Co₂SbO₆and Na₂Co₂TeO₆are new honeycomb cobalt-based systems with AFM Kitaev interaction by carrying out inelastic neutron scattering experiments and subsequent analysis. The spin-orbit excitons observed at 20-28 meV in both compounds strongly support the idea that Co²⁺ions of both compounds have a spin-orbital entangled<i>J</i>_eff= 1/2 state. Furthermore, we found that a generalized Kitaev-Heisenberg Hamiltonian can describe the spin-wave excitations of both compounds with additional 3rd nearest-neighbor interaction. Our best-fit parameters show significant AFM Kitaev terms and off-diagonal symmetric anisotropy terms of a similar magnitude in both compounds. We also found a strong magnon-damping effect at the higher energy part of the spin waves, entirely consistent with observations in other Kitaev magnets. Our work suggests Na₃Co₂SbO₆and Na₂Co₂TeO₆as rare examples of the AFM Kitaev magnets based on the systematic studies of the spin waves and analysis.