Investigation of spin excitations in Na2Co2TeO6 single crystals

Na2Co2TeO6 has recently been proposed to be a Kitaev-like magnet and was experimentally found to exhibit some resemblances to previous Kitaev materials. It exhibits rich phases under magnetic fields and the long-range magnetic order can be supressed by an in-plane field. We propose to perform an inelastic neutron scattering experiment on Na2Co2TeO6 single crystals. We will study the spin excitation spectrum at the magnetically ordered state and its response to external magnetic fields. By fitting the excitation spectrum, we can determine the leading magnetic interactions in this compound and get the knowledge of how close is it to the Kitaev model. Moreover, we will make measurements well above the magnetic ordering temperature for exploring possible unconventional spin excitations, which may be related to the anomalous heat capacity at high temperature.