Thermodynamic and neutron scattering studies of the Shastry-Sutherland Compound Yb₂Be₂GeO₇

In the study of frustrated magnetism, the Shastry-Sutherland lattice (SSL), an arrangement of orthogonal dimers with competing interactions J and J’ between and within the dimers, represents one of the few exactly solvable structures. The SSL ground state is known when the ratio J’/J is small and large, but the states of the intermediate values are still unclear. We have recently begun synthesizing the Yb-based SSL compound Yb₂Be₂GeO₇. We have produced pure powder samples and successfully grown large single crystals using the optical floating zone technique. Based on our initial magnetic and thermal characterization measurements, we observe no sign of magnetic ordering down to 60 mK. In this talk we present these results, as well as the results of our recent elastic and inelastic neutron scattering experiments on this compound.