Abstract
The pursuit of the quantum spin liquid (QSL) predicted by the Kitaev honeycomb model remains a central yet challenging goal in quantum magnetism. Realistic candidate materials inevitably host non-Kitaev interactions that often lead to antiferromagnetic (AFM) order at low temperature. While magnetic fields can suppress such AFM order and may stabilize a QSL phase, conclusive evidence for a field-induced Kitaev QSL has remained elusive despite a decade of research. Here, we establish an effective K-J-Γ-\({\Gamma }^{{\prime} }\) model with a dominant AFM Kitaev interaction for Na2Co2TeO6, which quantitatively explains its key experimental measurements. Using high-precision tensor-network calculations, we reveal a QSL phase under intermediate [111] magnetic fields, which is possibly gapless, and find it can be adiabatically connected to the intensively studied intermediate-field QSL in the pure AFM Kitaev model. This correspondence confirms that the Kitaev model as the origin of the intermediate-field QSL in cobalt-based magnet Na2Co2TeO6, thus offering a concrete platform for exploring Kitaev-derived QSL in realistic materials.
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Acknowledgements
H.L. would like to thank Enze Lv for the insightful discussions. The authors acknowledge supports by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants Nos. 12404177 (H.L.), 12534009 and 12047503 (W.L.)), the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Grant No. XDB1270100 (W.L.), and the Talent Fund of Beijing Jiaotong University (Grant No. 2025JBRC003) (H.L.). The authors also acknowledge HPC-ITP for the technical support and generous allocation of CPU time.
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Li, H., Zhou, XG., Su, G. et al. Kitaev-derived spin liquid in the frustrated quantum magnet Na2Co2TeO6. npj Quantum Mater. (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41535-026-00903-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41535-026-00903-6
