Neutron diffraction study on the lattice structure of rare-earth chalcogenides NaReSe2 (Re: Yb, Er and Lu)

The frustrated quantum magnets have attracted a lot of attention with the ability of hosting the exotic quantum spin states. It has been believed that the degenerate ground states of the system were induced by the competition between the interacting energies and geometrical properties of the crystal lattice at a specific given site. The quantum spin liquid(QSL) state is a frustrated quantum magnet with the unstable spins ordering state even in the zero-temperature limit. Therefore, it has been considered that QSLs have a prominent role in high-TC superconductors’ theory and in quantum computers. NaYbCh2 (Ch=O, S, Se) is a perfect QSL candidate with a hexagonal structure, R-3m. The Se-compound has larger distortion and small electronic band gap. In order to confirm the local information of Se-system, we propose to study the lattice structure of NaReSe2 (Re: Lu, Er, and Yb).