Non-magnon excitations in ferromagnetic van der Waals β-UTe₃

Van-der-Waals (vdW) materials are a frontier in condensed matter physics where genuine 2-D physics can be explored in the monolayer. Inclusion of actinide elements into vdW materials leads to enhanced correlations and unique magnetism. Recent work has shown that β-UTe₃ is an ideal candidate for probing such physics, having ferromagnetic order both in the bulk and monolayer limits with signs of 2-D correlations well-above the ferromagnetic transition. In this talk, I will discuss advancements in the neutron scattering studies of β-UTe₃. The observed magnetic excitations are gapless but remarkably non-magnon like, having a bandwidth of > 15 meV. Additionally, the temperature-dependence of the magnetic excitations persist from 5 K to at least 150 K, ~10 times greater than the bulk ordering temperature. This work establishes the uniqueness of β-UTe₃ as a vdW magnet, providing a new material which can both be used in novel devices and whose reduced dimensionality can be leveraged for increased tractability of modeling 5f magnetism.