Beyond single tetrahedron physics of the breathing pyrochlore compound Ba3Yb2Zn5O11

Abstract

Recently, a new class of quantum magnets, the so-called breathing pyrochlore spin systems, have attracted much attention due to their potential to host exotic emergent phenomena. Here, we present magnetometry, heat capacity, thermal conductivity, muon-spin relaxation, and polarized inelastic neutron scattering measurements performed on high-quality single crystal samples of the breathing pyrochlore compound ${\mathrm{Ba}}_{3}{\mathrm{Yb}}_{2}{\mathrm{Zn}}_{5}{\mathrm{O}}_{11}$. We interpret these results using a simplified toy model and provide insight into the low-energy physics of this system beyond the single tetrahedron physics proposed previously.