Spin Liquids on the Tetratrillium Lattice

Abstract

The tetratrillium lattice has recently been proposed as responsible for the dynamical properties observed in the $S=1$ langbeinite compound K$_2$Ni$_2$(SO$_4$)$_3$. Here, we study in detail the classical spin liquid properties of this lattice of tri-coordinated tetrahedra using classical Monte Carlo and large-$N$ theory calculations. In the large-$N$ limit, we find that the system presents a gapped spectrum with flat bottom bands, giving rise to a fragile spin liquid with exponentially decaying correlations according to the classification of classical spin liquids. We confirm that this scenario also holds in the more realistic Ising and Heisenberg cases, for which the system does not exhibit any finite-temperature phase transition, and the low-temperature spin structure factors exhibit excellent quantitative agreement with the large-$N$ theory. We also provide insight into the quantum $S=1/2$ limit by performing pseudo-Majorana functional renormalization group calculations at finite temperatures, and discuss the possible phases that can arise in the ground state due to quantum fluctuations.