Two magnetization plateaus in the kagome fluoride Cs2LiTi3F12

Abstract

We synthesized a kagome fluoride ${\mathrm{Cs}}_{2}{\mathrm{LiTi}}_{3}{\mathrm{F}}_{12}$ with $S=1/2$ spins, and studied magnetic properties of the compound. The temperature dependence of the magnetic susceptibility indicates that it has dominant antiferromagnetic interactions and that it has no magnetic order down to 2 K. We found two magnetization plateaus in its magnetization process approximately at 1/3 and 0.8 ${\ensuremath{\mu}}_{\mathrm{B}}$ per Ti. The monoclinic crystal structure gives four inequivalent nearest-neighbor exchange interactions. Our density functional theory calculations suggest that three of them are antiferromagnetic and one of them is weakly ferromagnetic, resulting in a magnetic system composed of antiferromagnetically coupled linear chains and $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}$ chains. This explains the observed suppression of magnetic order. Numerical diagonalization gives a magnetization curve in good agreement with the experimental results.