Frustration-induced insulating chiral spin state in itinerant triangular-lattice magnets

Abstract: We study the double-exchange model at half-filling with competing superexchange interactions on a triangular lattice, combining exact diagonalization and Monte-Carlo methods. We find that in between the expected itinerant ferromagnetic and $120^{\circ}$ Yafet-Kittel phases a robust scalar-chiral, insulating spin state emerges. At finite temperatures the ferromagnet - scalar-chiral quantum critical point is characterized by anomalous bad-metal behavior in charge transport as observed in frustrated itinerant magnets R$2$Mo${2}$O$_7$.