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    Magnon spectrum of the helimagnetic insulator Cu2OSeO3
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2016) Portnichenko, P.Y.; Romhányi, J.; Onykiienko, Y.A.; Henschel, A.; Schmidt, M.; Cameron, A.S.; Surmach, M.A.; Lim, J.A.; Park, J.T.; Schneidewind, A.; Abernathy, D.L.; Rosner, H.; van den Brink, Jeroen; Inosov, D.S.
    Complex low-temperature-ordered states in chiral magnets are typically governed by a competition between multiple magnetic interactions. The chiral-lattice multiferroic Cu2OSeO3 became the first insulating helimagnetic material in which a long-range order of topologically stable spin vortices known as skyrmions was established. Here we employ state-of-the-art inelastic neutron scattering to comprehend the full three-dimensional spin-excitation spectrum of Cu2OSeO3 over a broad range of energies. Distinct types of high- and low-energy dispersive magnon modes separated by an extensive energy gap are observed in excellent agreement with the previously suggested microscopic theory based on a model of entangled Cu4 tetrahedra. The comparison of our neutron spectroscopy data with model spin-dynamical calculations based on these theoretical proposals enables an accurate quantitative verification of the fundamental magnetic interactions in Cu2OSeO3 that are essential for understanding its abundant low-temperature magnetically ordered phases.
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    Strongly frustrated triangular spin lattice emerging from triplet dimer formation in honeycomb Li2IrO3
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2016) Nishimoto, Satoshi; Katukuri, Vamshi M.; Yushankhai, Viktor; Stoll, Hermann; Rößler, Ulrich K.; Hozoi, Liviu; Rousochatzakis, Ioannis; van den Brink, Jeroen
    Iridium oxides with a honeycomb lattice have been identified as platforms for the much anticipated Kitaev topological spin liquid: the spin-orbit entangled states of Ir4+ in principle generate precisely the required type of anisotropic exchange. However, other magnetic couplings can drive the system away from the spin-liquid phase. With this in mind, here we disentangle the different magnetic interactions in Li2IrO3, a honeycomb iridate with two crystallographically inequivalent sets of adjacent Ir sites. Our ab initio many-body calculations show that, while both Heisenberg and Kitaev nearest-neighbour couplings are present, on one set of Ir–Ir bonds the former dominates, resulting in the formation of spin-triplet dimers. The triplet dimers frame a strongly frustrated triangular lattice and by exact cluster diagonalization we show that they remain protected in a wide region of the phase diagram.