Novel phenomena in magnetically-intercalated graphite has been a subject of much research in the 1980s, with the most enigmatic findings of that era being a dramatic, roller-coaster-like behavior of the magnetoresistivity in EuC₆ compound, which remained unexplained until now. In our recent study ^[1], we have provided a long-awaited microscopic explanation of this behavior, demonstrating that the resistivity of EuC6, in which magnetic Eu²⁺ ions form a triangular lattice that is commensurate with the graphite honeycomb planes, is dominated by spin-excitations in Eu-planes and their highly nontrivial evolution with the magnetic field. Together with our theoretical analysis, this study showcases the power of the synthetic 2D materials as a potential source of significant novel insights into the nature of exotic spin excitations such as fractionalized spinons in a quantum spin liquid. 

^[1] A. L. Chernyshev and O. A. Starykh, Roller Coaster in a Flatland: Magnetoresistivity in Eu-Intercalated Graphite, Phys. Rev. X 12, 021010 (2022)

Plus d'information