Directly probing spin fluctuations in quantum spin liquids with X-ray Free Electron Lasers
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States)
Quantum Spin Liquids (QSLs) represent a class of Quantum Magnets where the ground state is understood to be a non-trivial superposition of many states, connected by local spin fluctuations. This complex entanglement, which is the defining feature of a QSL phase, does not couple directly to experimental probes, making the detection of candidate QSL materials difficult. With this proposal we intended to test the following hypothesis: “Is it possible to directly couple to the quantum spin fluctuations typical of QSLs by combining standard spectroscopic techniques with the high temporal resolution of X-ray Free Electron Lasers (XFELs)?” This argument relied on the simple observation that quantum spin fluctuations belong to the same femtosecond time scale typical of XFEL pulses. At the end of the project, this question remains unanswered. However, our work as helped shed some light on the effect of impurities on the theoretical stability of QSL phases in a special class of materials described by the so-called Transverse Field Ising Model on the pyrochlore lattice. This topic is of great relevance to the community today, given that any experiment must deal with the ever-present deviations of each sample from its ideal atomic composition and crystalline structure.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC52-07NA27344
- OSTI ID:
- 1572239
- Report Number(s):
- LLNL-TR-794281; 994627
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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