- Ruiz, Alejandro;
- Frano, Alex;
- Breznay, Nicholas P;
- Kimchi, Itamar;
- Helm, Toni;
- Oswald, Iain;
- Chan, Julia Y;
- Birgeneau, RJ;
- Islam, Zahirul;
- Analytis, James G
Honeycomb iridates are thought to have strongly spin-anisotropic exchange
interactions that could lead to an extraordinary state of matter known as the
Kitaev quantum spin liquid. The realization of this state requires almost
perfectly frustrated interactions between the magnetic Ir$^{4+}$ ions, but
small imbalances in energy make other ordered states more favorable. Indeed,
the closeness in energy of these ordered states is itself a signature of the
intrinsic frustration in the system. In this work, we illustrate that small
magnetic fields can be employed to drive the frustrated quantum magnet
$\beta-$Li$_2$IrO$_3$,between different broken symmetry states, but without
causing a true thermodynamic phase transition. This field-induced broken
symmetry phase has all the signatures of a thermodynamic order parameter, but
it is never truly formed in zero field. Rather, it is summoned when the scales
of frustration are appropriately tipped, intertwined with other nearby quantum
states.