Katukuri, Vamshi M.Yadav, RaviHozoi, LiviuNishimoto, Satoshivan den Brink, Jeroen2016-08-092016Katukuri, Vamshi M., Ravi Yadav, Liviu Hozoi, Satoshi Nishimoto, and Jeroen van den Brink. 2016. “The vicinity of hyper-honeycomb β-Li2IrO3 to a three-dimensional Kitaev spin liquid state.” Scientific Reports 6 (1): 29585. doi:10.1038/srep29585. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep29585.2045-2322http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:27822354Due to the combination of a substantial spin-orbit coupling and correlation effects, iridium oxides hold a prominent place in the search for novel quantum states of matter, including, e.g., Kitaev spin liquids and topological Weyl states. We establish the promise of the very recently synthesized hyper-honeycomb iridate β-Li2IrO3 in this regard. A detailed theoretical analysis reveals the presence of large ferromagnetic first-neighbor Kitaev interactions, while a second-neighbor antiferromagnetic Heisenberg exchange drives the ground state from ferro to zigzag order via a three-dimensional Kitaev spin liquid and an incommensurate phase. Experiment puts the system in the latter regime but the Kitaev spin liquid is very close and reachable by a slight modification of the ratio between the second- and first-neighbor couplings, for instance via strain.en-USJournal Article2016-08-0910.1038/srep29585