From magnetism to one-dimensional spin liquid in the anisotropic triangular lattice

Abstract

We investigate the anisotropic triangular lattice that interpolates from decoupled one-dimensional chains to the isotropic triangular lattice and has been suggested to be relevant for various quasi-two-dimensional materials, such as Cs$_2$CuCl$_4$ or $\kappa$-(ET)$_2$Cu$_2$(CN)$_3$, an organic material that shows intriguing magnetic properties. We obtain an excellent accuracy by means of a novel representation for the resonating valence bond wave function with both singlet and triplet pairing. This approach allows us to establish that the magnetic order is rapidly destroyed away from the pure triangular lattice and incommensurate spin correlations are short range. A non-magnetic spin liquid naturally emerges in a wide range of the phase diagram, with strong one-dimensional character. The relevance of the triplet pairing for $\kappa$-(ET)$_2$Cu$_2$(CN)$_3$ is also discussed.