Effect of non-magnetic dilution in : A composite system of spin-1/2 triangular Heisenberg-like and honeycomb Ising-like antiferromagnets

¹ School of Physics, Zhejiang University - Hangzhou 310027, China
² Institute for Advanced Study in Physics, Zhejiang University - Hangzhou 310027, China
³ State Key Laboratory of Silicon and Advanced Semiconductor Materials, Zhejiang University Hangzhou 310027, China
⁴ Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University - Nanjing 210093, China

Received: 3 April 2025
Accepted: 16 June 2025

Abstract

We report the evolution of the magnetic state in Ba₂CoTeO₆ with magnetic Co²⁺ substituted by non-magnetic Zn²⁺. Ba₂CoTeO₆, a strongly frustrated antiferromagnet which consists of two highly frustrated subsystems, undergoes two antiferromagnetic transitions at 12 K and 3 K, respectively. The magnetization and specific heat measurements demonstrate that the antiferromagnetic transition at in the parent compound Ba₂CoTeO₆ is drastically suppressed with Zn/Co substitution. On the other hand, with the increasing of Zn doping level x, the antiferromagnetic ordering below in Ba₂CoTeO₆ firstly becomes a spin glass state, and eventually transforms into a spin disordered state at higher Zn concentration x = 0.6. Our results indicate that magnetic site dilution by Zn/Co substitution is an effective approach to induce the novel disordered state in Ba₂CoTeO₆.