A novel cuprate Volborthite, Cu 3 V 2 O 7 (OH) 2 ·2H 2 O, containing an S-1/2 (Cu 2+ spin) kagomé-like lattice is studied by magnetic susceptibility, specific heat, and 51 V NMR measurements. Signs for neither long-range order nor spin-gapped singlet ground states are detected down to 1.8 K, in spite of large antiferromagnetic couplings of ~ 100 K between Cu spins forming a two-dimensional kagomé-like network. It is suggested that Volborthite represents a system close to a quantum critical point between classical long-range ordered and quantum disordered phases. *E-mail: hiroi@issp.u-tokyo.ac.jp §1. Introduction G e o m e t r i c a l f r u s t r a t i o n i n q u a n t u m antiferromagnets (AFMs) tends to stabilize unusual ground states such as a spin glass and a spin liquid instead of classical Néel order. It occurs on various triangle-based lattices like one-dimensional (1D) trestle lattice, two-dimensional (2D) triangular and kagomé lattices, and three-dimensional B-site spinel and pyrochlore lattices.1) In order to reduce total magnetic energy for antiferromagnetically interacting Heisenberg spins on triangles, the compromise arrangement, the so-called 120º state, is realized for the 2D triangular lattice.2) In contrast, such a compromise arrangement is not stabilized for the more frustrating kagomé lattice, because there still remains a degeneracy in propagating the 120º state on a triangle plaquette to neighboring triangles due to corner-sharing.1) This local degeneracy results in a finite entropy for the classical ground state, and should be lifted by quantum fluctuations. Most theoretical studies have focused on S-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnets on the kagomé lattice, and it has been believed that the ground state is a spin liquid with a finite excitation energy gap ∆.3-7) However, the physical picture of the ground state as well as the nature of low-lying excitations are still questions under debate. For example, Elstner and Young
5)suggested a spin liquid consisting of short-range singlet dimer pairs with ∆ ~ 0.25 J, where J is the magnitude of pairwise antiferromagnetic (AF) couplings, while Waldtmann et al. 7) claimed a much smaller gap of 0.025 J < ∆ < 0.1 J, implying dominant longer-range correlations. They also insisted that the singlet-triplet gap is filled with nonmagnetic excitations, the origin of which is possibly related to the ground state degeneracy of the classical model.To clarify the essential feature of the kagomé AFMs, we need a real-life material on which a quasi-2D kagomé lattice is realized. Unfortunately, however, we have not yet been given such an ideal kagomé compound suitable for detailed experimental characterizations. So far well studied are a garnet compound SrCr 9-x Ga 3+x O 19 with Cr 3+ (S = 3/2) 8, 9) and the Jarosite family of minerals KM 3 (OH) 6 (SO 4 ) 2 with M = Cr 3+ or Fe
3+. [10][11][12][13] In both of them Heisenberg spins form a kagomé lattice with strong AF interactions: the Curie-Weiss constant Θ is -500 K for the former, and -67.5 K (Cr 3+ ) or -600 ...