Synthesis and Characterization of Correlated Materials

Abstract

Progress in investigating exotic correlated phases of matter like Quantum Spin Liquids (QSLs) can fairly be described as sample-limited; the QSL candidacy of very few materials survive inspection by the full complement of (in)elastic X-ray/neutron/electron scattering and bulk thermodynamic probes now routinely applied for screening. Synthetic inorganic chemistry, when done with an eye towards open questions and applications in condensed matter physics, provides a needed source of new materials. Through analysis of reciprocal-space superstructure and bulk magnetism, this work identifies and characterizes new members of several families of QSL candidate materials, including cupric hydroxy-halide minerals, molecular organic metals, and platinum group lamellar oxides. Progress in determining the short-range structure in these complex materials via diffuse X-ray and electron scattering and the impact of that structure on the resulting global magnetic properties is described. Taken together, this work highlights the domineering role of subtle inter-atomic structural correlations in directing the magnetic correlations that control the key properties of quantum materials writ large, of which QSLs are a notable subset.