Neutron Spectroscopy Evidence for a Possible Magnetic-Field-Induced Gapless Quantum-Spin-Liquid Phase in a Kitaev Material $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$

doi:10.1088/0256-307X/39/5/057501

摘要
图/表
参考文献
相关文章 (9)

全文: PDF (2478 KB) HTML (1 KB)
输出: BibTeX | EndNote (RIS)

	服务

	把本文推荐给朋友
	加入我的书架
	加入引用管理器
	E-mail Alert
	RSS
	作者相关文章

Abstract：As one of the most promising Kitaev quantum-spin-liquid (QSL) candidates, $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$ has received a great deal of attention. However, its ground state exhibits a long-range zigzag magnetic order, which defies the QSL phase. Nevertheless, the magnetic order is fragile and can be completely suppressed by applying an external magnetic field. Here, we explore the evolution of magnetic excitations of $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$ under an in-plane magnetic field, by carrying out inelastic neutron scattering measurements on high-quality single crystals. Under zero field, there exist spin-wave excitations near the $M$ point and a continuum near the $\varGamma$ point, which are believed to be associated with the zigzag magnetic order and fractional excitations of the Kitaev QSL state, respectively. By increasing the magnetic field, the spin-wave excitations gradually give way to the continuous excitations. On the verge of the critical field $\mu_0H_{\rm c}=7.5$ T, the former ones vanish and only the latter ones are left, indicating the emergence of a pure QSL state. By further increasing the field strength, the excitations near the $\varGamma$ point become more intense. By following the gap evolution of the excitations near the $\varGamma$ point, we are able to establish a phase diagram composed of three interesting phases, including a gapped zigzag order phase at low fields, possibly gapless QSL phase near $\mu_0H_{\rm c}$, and gapped partially polarized phase at high fields. These results demonstrate that an in-plane magnetic field can drive $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$ into a long-sought QSL state near the critical field.

收稿日期: 2022-03-03 Express Letter 出版日期: 2022-04-05

:	75.10.Kt	(Quantum spin liquids, valence bond phases and related phenomena)
	61.05.fg	(Neutron scattering (including small-angle scattering))
	75.30.Ds	(Spin waves)

引用本文:

. [J]. 中国物理快报, 2022, 39(5): 57501-057501.
Xiaoxue Zhao, Kejing Ran, Jinghui Wang, Song Bao, Yanyan Shangguan, Zhentao Huang, Junbo Liao, Bo Zhang, Shufan Cheng, Hao Xu, Wei Wang, Zhao-Yang Dong, Siqin Meng, Zhilun Lu, Shin-ichiro Yano, Shun-Li Yu, Jian-Xin Li, and Jinsheng Wen. Neutron Spectroscopy Evidence for a Possible Magnetic-Field-Induced Gapless Quantum-Spin-Liquid Phase in a Kitaev Material $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$. Chin. Phys. Lett., 2022, 39(5): 57501-057501.

链接本文:

https://cpl.iphy.ac.cn/CN/10.1088/0256-307X/39/5/057501 或 https://cpl.iphy.ac.cn/CN/Y2022/V39/I5/57501

[1]	Kitaev A 2006 Ann. Phys. 321 2
[2]	Savary L and Balents L 2017 Rep. Prog. Phys. 80 016502
[3]	Takagi H, Takayama T, Jackeli G, Khaliullin G, and Nagler S E 2019 Nat. Rev. Phys. 1 264
[4]	Wen J, Yu S L, Li S, Yu W, and Li J X 2019 npj Quantum Mater. 4 12
[5]	Anderson P W 1973 Mater. Res. Bull. 8 153
[6]	Balents L 2010 Nature 464 199
[7]	Sears J A, Songvilay M, Plumb K W, Clancy J P, Qiu Y, Zhao Y, Parshall D, and Kim Y J 2015 Phys. Rev. B 91 144420
[8]	Kim H S, Vijay S V, Catuneanu A, and Kee H Y 2015 Phys. Rev. B 91 241110
[9]	Johnson R D, Williams S C, Haghighirad A A, Singleton J, Zapf V, Manuel P, Mazin I I, Li Y, Jeschke H O, Valentí R, and Coldea R 2015 Phys. Rev. B 92 235119
[10]	Banerjee A, Bridges C A, Yan J Q, Aczel A A, Li L, Stone M B, Granroth G E, Lumsden M D, Yiu Y, Knolle J, Bhattacharjee S, Kovrizhin D L, Moessner R, Tennant D A, Mandrus D G, and Nagler S E 2016 Nat. Mater. 15 733
[11]	Ritter C 2016 J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 746 012060
[12]	Plumb K W, Clancy J P, Sandilands L J, Shankar V V, Hu Y F, Burch K S, Kee H Y, and Kim Y J 2014 Phys. Rev. B 90 041112
[13]	Kim H S and Kee H Y 2016 Phys. Rev. B 93 155143
[14]	Yadav R, Bogdanov N A, Katukuri V M, Nishimoto S, van den Brink J, and Hozoi L 2016 Sci. Rep. 6 37925
[15]	Ran K, Wang J, Wang W, Dong Z Y, Ren X, Bao S, Li S, Ma Z, Gan Y, Zhang Y, Park J T, Deng G, Danilkin S, Yu S L, Li J X, and Wen J 2017 Phys. Rev. Lett. 118 107203
[16]	Wang W, Dong Z Y, Yu S L, and Li J X 2017 Phys. Rev. B 96 115103
[17]	Sears J A, Chern L E, Kim S, Bereciartua P J, Francoual S, Kim Y B, and Kim Y J 2020 Nat. Phys. 16 837
[18]	Sandilands L J, Tian Y, Plumb K W, Kim Y J, and Burch K S 2015 Phys. Rev. Lett. 114 147201
[19]	Nasu J, Knolle J, Kovrizhin D L, Motome Y, and Moessner R 2016 Nat. Phys. 12 912
[20]	Do S H, Park S Y, Yoshitake J, Nasu J, Motome Y, Kwon Y S, Adroja D T, Voneshen D J, Kim K, Jang T H, Park J H, Choi K Y, and Ji S 2017 Nat. Phys. 13 1079
[21]	Hou Y S, Xiang H J, and Gong X G 2017 Phys. Rev. B 96 054410
[22]	Lampen-Kelley P, Rachel S, Reuther J, Yan J Q, Banerjee A, Bridges C A, Cao H B, Nagler S E, and Mandrus D 2018 Phys. Rev. B 98 100403
[23]	Eichstaedt C, Zhang Y, Laurell P, Okamoto S, Eguiluz A G, and Berlijn T 2019 Phys. Rev. B 100 075110
[24]	Chaloupka J, Jackeli G, and Khaliullin G 2010 Phys. Rev. Lett. 105 027204
[25]	Rau J G, Lee E K H, and Kee H Y 2014 Phys. Rev. Lett. 112 077204
[26]	Chaloupka J and Khaliullin G 2015 Phys. Rev. B 92 024413
[27]	Katukuri V M, Nishimoto S, Yushankhai V, Stoyanova A, Kandpal H, Choi S, Coldea R, Rousochatzakis I, Hozoi L, and van den Brink J 2014 New J. Phys. 16 013056
[28]	Yamaji Y, Nomura Y, Kurita M, Arita R, and Imada M 2014 Phys. Rev. Lett. 113 107201
[29]	Chun S H, Kim J W, Kim J, Zheng H, Stoumpos C C, Malliakas C D, Mitchell J F, Mehlawat K, Singh Y, Choi Y, Gog T, Al-Zein A, Sala M M, Krisch M, Chaloupka J, Jackeli G, Khaliullin G, and Kim B J 2015 Nat. Phys. 11 462
[30]	Jackeli G and Khaliullin G 2009 Phys. Rev. Lett. 102 017205
[31]	Winter S M, Tsirlin A A, Daghofer M, van den Brink J, Singh Y, Gegenwart P, and Valentí R 2017 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 29 493002
[32]	Winter S M, Li Y, Jeschke H O, and Valentí R 2016 Phys. Rev. B 93 214431
[33]	Ronquillo D C, Vengal A, and Trivedi N 2019 Phys. Rev. B 99 140413
[34]	Janssen L, Andrade E C, and Vojta M 2017 Phys. Rev. B 96 064430
[35]	Kim B H, Sota S, Shirakawa T, Yunoki S, and Son Y W 2020 Phys. Rev. B 102 140402
[36]	Gordon J S, Catuneanu A, Sørensen E S, and Kee H Y 2019 Nat. Commun. 10 2470
[37]	Winter S M, Riedl K, Kaib D, Coldea R, and Valentí R 2018 Phys. Rev. Lett. 120 077203
[38]	Janssen L and Vojta M 2019 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 31 423002
[39]	Chern L E, Kaneko R, Lee H Y, and Kim Y B 2020 Phys. Rev. Res. 2 013014
[40]	Suzuki H, Liu H, Bertinshaw J et al. 2021 Nat. Commun. 12 4512
[41]	Li H, Zhang H K, Wang J, Wu H Q, Gao Y, Qu D W, Liu Z X, Gong S S, and Li W 2021 Nat. Commun. 12 4007
[42]	Kubota Y, Tanaka H, Ono T, Narumi Y, and Kindo K 2015 Phys. Rev. B 91 094422
[43]	Zheng J, Ran K, Li T, Wang J, Wang P, Liu B, Liu Z X, Normand B, Wen J, and Yu W 2017 Phys. Rev. Lett. 119 227208
[44]	Majumder M, Schmidt M, Rosner H, Tsirlin A A, Yasuoka H, and Baenitz M 2015 Phys. Rev. B 91 180401
[45]	Balz C, Janssen L, Lampen-Kelley P, Banerjee A, Liu Y H, Yan J Q, Mandrus D G, Vojta M, and Nagler S E 2021 Phys. Rev. B 103 174417
[46]	Sears J A, Zhao Y, Xu Z, Lynn J W, and Kim Y J 2017 Phys. Rev. B 95 180411
[47]	Bachus S, Kaib D A S, Tokiwa Y, Jesche A, Tsurkan V, Loidl A, Winter S M, Tsirlin A A, Valentí R, and Gegenwart P 2020 Phys. Rev. Lett. 125 097203
[48]	Wolter A U B, Corredor L T, Janssen L, Nenkov K, Schönecker S, Do S H, Choi K Y, Albrecht R, Hunger J, Doert T, Vojta M, and Büchner B 2017 Phys. Rev. B 96 041405
[49]	Baek S H, Do S H, Choi K Y, Kwon Y S, Wolter A U B, Nishimoto S, van den Brink J, and Büchner B 2017 Phys. Rev. Lett. 119 037201
[50]	Yu Y J, Xu Y, Ran K J, Ni J M, Huang Y Y, Wang J H, Wen J S, and Li S Y 2018 Phys. Rev. Lett. 120 067202
[51]	Bachus S, Kaib D A S, Jesche A, Tsurkan V, Loidl A, Winter S M, Tsirlin A A, Valentí R, and Gegenwart P 2021 Phys. Rev. B 103 054440
[52]	Widmann S, Tsurkan V, Prishchenko D A, Mazurenko V G, Tsirlin A A, and Loidl A 2019 Phys. Rev. B 99 094415
[53]	Tanaka O, Mizukami Y, Harasawa R, Hashimoto K, Hwang K, Kurita N, Tanaka H, Fujimoto S, Matsuda Y, Moon E G, and Shibauchi T 2022 Nat. Phys. (accepted)
[54]	Zhou X G, Li H, Matsuda Y H, Matsuo A, Li W, Kurita N, Kindo K, and Tanaka H 2022 arXiv:2201.04597 [cond-mat.str-el]
[55]	Banerjee A, Lampen-Kelley P, Knolle J, Balz C, Aczel A A, Winn B, Liu Y, Pajerowski D, Yan J, Bridges C A, Savici A T, Chakoumakos B C, Lumsden M D, Tennant D A, Moessner R, Mandrus D G, and Nagler S E 2018 npj Quantum Mater. 3 8
[56]	Balz C, Lampen-Kelley P, Banerjee A, Yan J, Lu Z, Hu X, Yadav S M, Takano Y, Liu Y, Tennant D A, Lumsden M D, Mandrus D, and Nagler S E 2019 Phys. Rev. B 100 060405
[57]	Nagai Y, Jinno T, Yoshitake J, Nasu J, Motome Y, Itoh M, and Shimizu Y 2020 Phys. Rev. B 101 020414
[58]	Janša N, Zorko A, Gomilšek M, Pregelj M, Krämer K W, Biner D, Biffin A, Rüegg C, and Klanjšek M 2018 Nat. Phys. 14 786
[59]	Leahy I A, Pocs C A, Siegfried P E, Graf D, Do S H, Choi K Y, Normand B, and Lee M 2017 Phys. Rev. Lett. 118 187203
[60]	Hentrich R, Wolter A U B, Zotos X, Brenig W, Nowak D, Isaeva A, Doert T, Banerjee A, Lampen-Kelley P, Mandrus D G, Nagler S E, Sears J, Kim Y J, Büchner B, and Hess C 2018 Phys. Rev. Lett. 120 117204
[61]	Kasahara Y, Ohnishi T, Mizukami Y, Tanaka O, Ma S, Sugii K, Kurita N, Tanaka H, Nasu J, Motome Y, Shibauchi T, and Matsuda Y 2018 Nature 559 227
[62]	Kasahara Y, Sugii K, Ohnishi T, Shimozawa M, Yamashita M, Kurita N, Tanaka H, Nasu J, Motome Y, Shibauchi T, and Matsuda Y 2018 Phys. Rev. Lett. 120 217205
[63]	Czajka P, Gao T, Hirschberger M, Lampen-Kelley P, Banerjee A, Yan J, Mandrus D G, Nagler S E, and Ong N P 2021 Nat. Phys. 17 915
[64]	Yokoi T, Ma S, Kasahara Y, Kasahara S, Shibauchi T, Kurita N, Tanaka H, Nasu J, Motome Y, Hickey C, Trebst S, and Matsuda Y 2021 Science 373 568
[65]	Bruin J A N, Claus R R, Matsumoto Y, Kurita N, Tanaka H, and Takagi H 2022 Nat. Phys. (accepted)
[66]	Czajka P, Gao T, Hirschberger M, Lampen-Kelley P, Banerjee A, Quirk N, Mandrus D G, Nagler S E, and Ong N P 2022 arXiv:2201.07873 [cond-mat.str-el]
[67]	Sahasrabudhe A, Kaib D A S, Reschke S, German R, Koethe T C, Buhot J, Kamenskyi D, Hickey C, Becker P, Tsurkan V, Loidl A, Do S H, Choi K Y, Grüninger M, Winter S M, Wang Z, Valentí R, and van Loosdrecht P H M 2020 Phys. Rev. B 101 140410
[68]	Wellm C, Zeisner J, Alfonsov A, Wolter A U B, Roslova M, Isaeva A, Doert T, Vojta M, Büchner B, and Kataev V 2018 Phys. Rev. B 98 184408
[69]	Little A, Wu L, Lampen-Kelley P, Banerjee A, Patankar S, Rees D, Bridges C A, Yan J Q, Mandrus D, Nagler S E, and Orenstein J 2017 Phys. Rev. Lett. 119 227201
[70]	Wang Z, Reschke S, Hüvonen D, Do S H, Choi K Y, Gensch M, Nagel U, Rõõm T, and Loidl A 2017 Phys. Rev. Lett. 119 227202
[71]	Wu L, Little A, Aldape E E, Rees D, Thewalt E, Lampen-Kelley P, Banerjee A, Bridges C A, Yan J Q, Boone D, Patankar S, Goldhaber-Gordon D, Mandrus D, Nagler S E, Altman E, and Orenstein J 2018 Phys. Rev. B 98 094425
[72]	Wulferding D, Choi Y, Do S H, Lee C H, Lemmens P, Faugeras C, Gallais Y, and Choi K Y 2020 Nat. Commun. 11 1
[73]	Aoyama T, Hasegawa Y, Kimura S, Kimura T, and Ohgushi K 2017 Phys. Rev. B 95 245104
[74]	Modic K A, McDonald R D, Ruff J P C, Bachmann M D, Lai Y, Palmstrom J C, Graf D, Chan M K, Balakirev F F, Betts J B, Boebinger G S, Schmidt M, Lawler J M, Sokolov D A, Moll P J W, Ramshaw B J, and Shekhter A 2021 Nat. Phys. 17 240
[75]	Ponomaryov A N, Schulze E, Wosnitza J, Lampen-Kelley P, Banerjee A, Yan J Q, Bridges C A, Mandrus D G, Nagler S E, Kolezhuk A K, and Zvyagin S A 2017 Phys. Rev. B 96 241107
[76]	Ponomaryov A N, Zviagina L, Wosnitza J, Lampen-Kelley P, Banerjee A, Yan J Q, Bridges C A, Mandrus D G, Nagler S E, and Zvyagin S A 2020 Phys. Rev. Lett. 125 037202
[77]	Gass S, Cônsoli P M, Kocsis V, Corredor L T, Lampen-Kelley P, Mandrus D G, Nagler S E, Janssen L, Vojta M, Büchner B, and Wolter A U B 2020 Phys. Rev. B 101 245158
[78]	Schönemann R, Imajo S, Weickert F, Yan J, Mandrus D G, Takano Y, Brosha E L, Rosa P F S, Nagler S E, Kindo K, and Jaime M 2020 Phys. Rev. B 102 214432
[79]	Maksimov P A and Chernyshev A L 2020 Phys. Rev. Res. 2 033011
[80]	Banerjee A, Yan J, Knolle J, Bridges C A, Stone M B, Lumsden M D, Mandrus D G, Tennant D A, Moessner R, and Nagler S E 2017 Science 356 1055
[81]	Ran K, Wang J, Bao S, Cai Z, Shangguan Y, Ma Z, Wang W, Dong Z Y, Čermák P, Schneidewind A, Meng S, Lu Z, Yu S L, Li J X, and Wen J 2022 Chin. Phys. Lett. 39 027501
[82]	Wu C M, Deng G, Gardner J S, Vorderwisch P, Li W H, Yano S, Peng J C, and Imamovic E 2016 J. Instrum. 11 P10009
[83]	Ma Z, Dong Z Y, Wang J, Zheng S, Ran K, Bao S, Cai Z, Shangguan Y, Wang W, Boehm M, Steffens P, Regnault L P, Wang X, Su Y, Yu S L, Liu J M, Li J X, and Wen J 2021 Phys. Rev. B 104 224433
[84]	Li H, Qu D W, Zhang H K, Jia Y Z, Gong S S, Qi Y, and Li W 2020 Phys. Rev. Res. 2 043015

[1]	. [J]. 中国物理快报, 2022, 39(10): 107502-.
[2]	. [J]. 中国物理快报, 2022, 39(7): 77502-077502.
[3]	. [J]. 中国物理快报, 2022, 39(2): 27501-027501.
[4]	. [J]. 中国物理快报, 2021, 38(9): 97501-097501.
[5]	. [J]. 中国物理快报, 2021, 38(4): 47502-47502.
[6]	. [J]. 中国物理快报, 2019, 36(5): 50101-.
[7]	. [J]. 中国物理快报, 2019, 36(1): 17502-017502.
[8]	. [J]. 中国物理快报, 2018, 35(11): 117501-117501.
[9]	. [J]. 中国物理快报, 2017, 34(7): 77502-077502.