Field-tuned magnetic structure and phase diagram of the honeycomb magnet YbCl

Hao, Y. Q.*; Wo, H. L.*; Gu, Y. M.*; Zhang, X. W.*; Gu, Y. Q.*; Zheng, S. Y.*; Zhao, Y.*; Xu, G. Y.*; Lynn, J. W.*; Nakajima, Kenji  ; Murai, Naoki  ; Wang, W. B.*; Zhao, J.*

We report thermodynamic and neutron diffraction measurements on the magnetic ordering properties of the honeycomb lattice magnet YbCl. We find YbCl exhibits a Nel type long-range magnetic order at the wavevector (0, 0, 0) below T = 600 mK. This magnetic order is associated with a small sharp peak in heat capacity and most magnetic entropy release occurs above the magnetic ordering temperature. The magnetic moment lies in-plane, parallel to the monoclinic a-axis, whose magnitude m = 0.86(3) is considerably smaller than the expected fully ordered moment of 2.24 for the doublet crystal-field ground state. The magnetic ordering moment gradually increases with increasing magnetic field perpendicular to the ab-plane, reaching a maximum value of 1.6(2) at 4 T, before it is completely suppressed above 9 T. These results indicate the presence of strong quantum fluctuations in YbCl.