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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2026
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.25269 |
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| _version_ | 1866911715259580416 |
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| author | Liu, Wenhao Zhang, Dechen Lyu, Yuanqi Chen, Lebing Hu, Lifang Teddei, Keith M. Zhang, Yuting Shelton, Steve Kim, Moon Wang, Xiqu Susner, Michael A. Analytis, James G. Lee, Dung-Hai Li, Lu Lv, Bing Birgeneau, Robert J. |
| author_facet | Liu, Wenhao Zhang, Dechen Lyu, Yuanqi Chen, Lebing Hu, Lifang Teddei, Keith M. Zhang, Yuting Shelton, Steve Kim, Moon Wang, Xiqu Susner, Michael A. Analytis, James G. Lee, Dung-Hai Li, Lu Lv, Bing Birgeneau, Robert J. |
| contents | Understanding if low-energy excitations can remain itinerant in the presence of strong disorder remains a central challenge in frustrated quantum magnets, where disorder is generally expected to localize excitations through Anderson-like mechanisms. Here we report the emergence of charge-neutral itinerant excitations in a van der Waals compound Cr$_3$Se$_2$Br$_5$, a strongly disordered $S = 3/2$ Mott insulator with a frustrated triangular lattice. Structural analysis reveals substantial intrinsic disorder arising from Cr-site deficiency and Se/Br-site mixing, which appear to be fixed and cannot be readily tuned. No long-range magnetic order or conventional glassy behavior is observed. In addition to its highly insulating nature, the magnetic specific heat C_mag/T and thermal conductivity \k{appa}_xx/T both exhibit linear temperature dependencies with substantial finite intercepts. In particular, a sizeable field-independent residual term $κ/T \approx 0.03~\mathrm{W\,m^{-1}\,K^{-2}}$ is observed, providing compelling evidence of itinerant low-energy excitations that carry entropy without charge. These findings conceptually advance our understanding of quantum matter by demonstrating a rare regime where the interplay of disorder, frustration, and electronic correlations actively reshapes the nature of low-energy excitations, allowing itinerant neutral excitations to coexist with strong intrinsic disorder. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_25269 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Non-local low energy neutral excitations in a strongly disordered triangular Mott magnet Cr$_3$Se$_2$Br$_5$ Liu, Wenhao Zhang, Dechen Lyu, Yuanqi Chen, Lebing Hu, Lifang Teddei, Keith M. Zhang, Yuting Shelton, Steve Kim, Moon Wang, Xiqu Susner, Michael A. Analytis, James G. Lee, Dung-Hai Li, Lu Lv, Bing Birgeneau, Robert J. Strongly Correlated Electrons Materials Science Understanding if low-energy excitations can remain itinerant in the presence of strong disorder remains a central challenge in frustrated quantum magnets, where disorder is generally expected to localize excitations through Anderson-like mechanisms. Here we report the emergence of charge-neutral itinerant excitations in a van der Waals compound Cr$_3$Se$_2$Br$_5$, a strongly disordered $S = 3/2$ Mott insulator with a frustrated triangular lattice. Structural analysis reveals substantial intrinsic disorder arising from Cr-site deficiency and Se/Br-site mixing, which appear to be fixed and cannot be readily tuned. No long-range magnetic order or conventional glassy behavior is observed. In addition to its highly insulating nature, the magnetic specific heat C_mag/T and thermal conductivity \k{appa}_xx/T both exhibit linear temperature dependencies with substantial finite intercepts. In particular, a sizeable field-independent residual term $κ/T \approx 0.03~\mathrm{W\,m^{-1}\,K^{-2}}$ is observed, providing compelling evidence of itinerant low-energy excitations that carry entropy without charge. These findings conceptually advance our understanding of quantum matter by demonstrating a rare regime where the interplay of disorder, frustration, and electronic correlations actively reshapes the nature of low-energy excitations, allowing itinerant neutral excitations to coexist with strong intrinsic disorder. |
| title | Non-local low energy neutral excitations in a strongly disordered triangular Mott magnet Cr$_3$Se$_2$Br$_5$ |
| topic | Strongly Correlated Electrons Materials Science |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.25269 |