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ABSTRACT Spin liquid ground states are predicted to arise within several distinct scenarios in condensed matter physics. The observation of these disordered magnetic states is particularly

pervasive among a class of materials known as frustrated magnets, in which the competition between various magnetic exchange interactions prevents the system from adopting long-range

magnetic order at low temperatures. Spin liquids continue to be of great interest due to their exotic nature and the possibility that they may support fractionalized excitations, such as

Majorana fermions. Systems that allow for such phenomena are not only fascinating from a fundamental perspective but may also be practically significant in future technologies based on

quantum computation. Here we show that the underlying antiferromagnetic sublattice in TbInO3 can undergo a crystal field-induced distortion of its buckled triangular arrangement to one based

on a honeycomb. The absence of a conventional magnetic ordering transition at the lowest measurable temperatures indicates that another critical mechanism must govern in the ground-state

selection of TbInO3. We suggest that anisotropic exchange interactions—mediated through strong spin–orbit coupling on the emergent honeycomb lattice of TbInO3—give rise to a highly

frustrated spin liquid. Access through your institution Buy or subscribe This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution ACCESS OPTIONS Access through your institution

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CONTENT BEING VIEWED BY OTHERS ANISOTROPIC MAGNETIC INTERACTIONS IN A CANDIDATE KITAEV SPIN LIQUID CLOSE TO A METAL-INSULATOR TRANSITION Article Open access 29 November 2024 GAPLESS QUANTUM

SPIN LIQUID IN A HONEYCOMB Γ MAGNET Article Open access 04 June 2021 TRIMER QUANTUM SPIN LIQUID IN A HONEYCOMB ARRAY OF RYDBERG ATOMS Article Open access 14 December 2023 DATA AVAILABILITY

Raw powder neutron diffraction54 and muon spin relaxation data55 were collected on the HRPD, MuSR and EMu instruments at ISIS Neutron and Muon Facility and Rutherford Appleton Laboratory,

UK, respectively. Powder inelastic neutron scattering data were collected on the SEQUOIA and CNCS instruments at the Spallation Neutron Source, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA56. All

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data from SNS on the CNCS and SEQUOIA instruments_ https://doi.org/10.13139/OLCF/1483946 (Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 2015). Download references ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Work at McMaster

University was supported by NSERC of Canada. Research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Spallation Neutron Source was supported by the Scientific User Facilities Division, Office of Basic

Energy Sciences, US Department of Energy. Work at ISIS was supported by the Science and Technology Facilities Council. Work at Rutgers University was supported by the DOE under grant no.

DOE: DE-FG02–07ER46382. The authors thank A. Aczel, P. Baker, G. Chen and M. Gingras for helpful and insightful discussions during preparation of this manuscript. AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS

AND AFFILIATIONS * Departments of Chemistry and Physics, Materials Innovation Factory, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK Lucy Clark * Department of Physics and Astronomy, McMaster

University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada Lucy Clark, Gabriele Sala, Dalini D. Maharaj & Bruce D. Gaulin * Neutron Scattering Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA

Gabriele Sala & Matthew B. Stone * Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, London, UK Kevin S. Knight * Department of Earth Sciences, Natural History Museum, London, UK

Kevin S. Knight * ISIS Facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, UK Kevin S. Knight & Mark T. F. Telling * Rutgers Center for Emergent Materials and Department of Physics and

Astronomy, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, USA Xueyun Wang, Xianghan Xu, Jaewook Kim, Yanbin Li & Sang-Wook Cheong * State Key Laboratory of Crystal Materials, Shandong University,

Jinan, China Yanbin Li * Brockhouse Institute for Materials Research, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada Bruce D. Gaulin * Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Bruce D.

Gaulin Authors * Lucy Clark View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Gabriele Sala View author publications You can also search for this author

inPubMed Google Scholar * Dalini D. Maharaj View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Matthew B. Stone View author publications You can also

search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Kevin S. Knight View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Mark T. F. Telling View author

publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Xueyun Wang View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Xianghan Xu View

author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Jaewook Kim View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Yanbin

Li View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Sang-Wook Cheong View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google

Scholar * Bruce D. Gaulin View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar CONTRIBUTIONS B.D.G. and S.-W.C. conceived and supervised the project. X.W.,

X.X. and Y.L. prepared samples and J.K. performed single-crystal magnetic susceptibility measurements. L.C. performed and analysed powder magnetic susceptibility measurements. L.C. and

K.S.K. performed high-resolution powder neutron diffraction measurements and L.C. carried out Rietveld analysis of the data. L.C. and M.T.F.T. performed muon spectroscopy measurements and

L.C. analysed the data. G.S., D.D.M. and M.B.S. performed the inelastic neutron scattering measurements and G.S. and L.C. analysed the data with guidance from B.D.G. G.S. performed the

crystal field calculations and analysis with guidance from B.D.G. L.C. and B.D.G. prepared figures and wrote the paper. CORRESPONDING AUTHORS Correspondence to Lucy Clark or Bruce D. Gaulin.

ETHICS DECLARATIONS COMPETING INTERESTS The authors declare no competing interests. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION PUBLISHER’S NOTE: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional

claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary Text, Supplementary Tables 1–2 and Supplementary Figures 1–4.

RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Clark, L., Sala, G., Maharaj, D.D. _et al._ Two-dimensional spin liquid behaviour in the

triangular-honeycomb antiferromagnet TbInO3. _Nat. Phys._ 15, 262–268 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-018-0407-2 Download citation * Received: 08 May 2018 * Accepted: 10 December 2018

* Published: 21 January 2019 * Issue Date: March 2019 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-018-0407-2 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this

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