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Giant phonon anomalies in the proximate Kitaev quantum spin liquid α-RuCl3

Journal Article · · Nature Communications
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [4];  [1];  [5];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [6];  [1];  [1]
  1. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  2. Tokyo Inst. of Technology (Japan); Tokyo Inst. of Technology, Kanagawa (Japan)
  3. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
  4. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Paul Scherrer Inst. (PSI), Villigen (Switzerland)
  5. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
  6. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations
The Kitaev quantum spin liquid epitomizes an entangled topological state, for which two flavors of fractionalized low-energy excitations are predicted: the itinerant Majorana fermion and the Z2 gauge flux. Here, it was proposed recently that fingerprints of fractional excitations are encoded in the phonon spectra of Kitaev quantum spin liquids through a novel fractional-excitation-phonon coupling. Here, we detect anomalous phonon effects in α-RuCl3 using inelastic X-ray scattering with meV resolution. At high temperature, we discover interlaced optical phonons intercepting a transverse acoustic phonon between 3 and 7 meV. Upon decreasing temperature, the optical phonons display a large intensity enhancement near the Kitaev energy, JK~8 meV, that coincides with a giant acoustic phonon softening near the Z2 gauge flux energy scale. These phonon anomalies signify the coupling of phonon and Kitaev magnetic excitations in α-RuCl3 and demonstrates a proof-of-principle method to detect anomalous excitations in topological quantum materials.
Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357; AC05-00OR22725; SC0012704
OSTI ID:
1782548
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1805025
OSTI ID: 1787494
Report Number(s):
BNL--221379-2021-JAAM
Journal Information:
Nature Communications, Journal Name: Nature Communications Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 12; ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
Inelastic x-ray scattering
Kitaev quantum spin liquid
Magnetic properties and materials
Quantum fluids and solids
RuCl3