Emergent Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless and Kugel-Khomskii physics in the triangular lattice bilayer colbaltate

Abstract

Motivated by the experiments on the triangular lattice bilayer colbaltate K$_2$Co$_2$(SeO$_3$)$_3$, we formulate a theory to explore the underlying physics from a couple observation. The model is composed of interacting Co$^{2+}$ dimers on the triangular lattice, where the Co$^{2+}$ ion provides an effective spin-1/2 local moment via the spin-orbit coupling and the crystal field effect. The intra-dimer interaction is dominant and would simply favor the local spin singlet, and the inter-dimer interactions compete with the inter-dimer interaction, leading to rich behaviors. With the easy-axis anisotropy, it is shown that, in the ground state manifold of the intra-dimer Ising interaction, the system realizes an effective transverse field Ising model, where the ground state is either a three-sublattice order or Ising disordered. The finite temperature regime naturally realizes the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless physics. To explore the full excitations, we incorporate the excited state manifold of the intra-dimer Ising interaction and establish the emergent Kugel-Khomskii physics. Thus, the triangular lattice bilayer colbaltate is an excellent platform to explore the interplay between geometrical frustration and anisotropic interactions as well as the emergent effective models and the resulting physics.