Exploring Magnetic Excitations in a Metal-Organic Framework Quantum Spin Liquid Candidate

An outstanding challenge in modern-day materials research is the unambiguous experimental realisation of a quantum spin liquid. From a theoretical perspective, an ideal host in which to explore quantum spin liquid physics is the S = ½ kagome antiferromagnet. Experimentally, realisations of this model have been explored extensively in inorganic mineral materials whose structures contain kagome arrays of Cu(II) S = ½ ions. However, a key challenge in these materials is the presence of site disorder, which obstructs the experimental characterisation of their intrinsic magnetic ground states. Here we present the metal-organic framework Cu3(C6O6)2 as an extremely promising new quantum spin liquid candidate, based on its structure of two-dimensional S = 1/2 kagome layers that are free from site disorder. We propose to explore its magnetic ground state and excitations by inelastic neutron scattering on LET.