Tunneling Spectroscopy of Quantum Spin Liquids

König, Elio J.; Randeria, Mallika T.; Jäck, Berthold

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.125.267206

Tunneling Spectroscopy of Quantum Spin Liquids

Journal Article · Thu Dec 31 00:00:00 EST 2020 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.125.267206· OSTI ID:1850216

König, Elio J. ^[1]; Randeria, Mallika T. ^[2]; Jäck, Berthold ^[3]

Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, NJ (United States); OSTI
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)

Here, we examine the spectroscopic signatures of tunneling through a Kitaev quantum spin liquid (QSL) barrier in a number of experimentally relevant geometries. We combine contributions from elastic and inelastic tunneling processes and find that spin-flip scattering at the itinerant spinon modes gives rise to a gapped contribution to the tunneling conductance spectrum. We address the spectral modifications that arise in a magnetic field, which is applied to drive the candidate material α-RuCl₃ into a QSL phase, and we propose a lateral 1D tunnel junction as a viable setup in this regime. The characteristic spin gap is an unambiguous signature of the fractionalized QSL excitations, distinguishing it from magnons or phonons. We discuss the generalization of our results to a wide variety of QSLs with gapped and gapless spin correlators.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); Princeton Univ., NJ (United States); Rutgers Univ., Piscataway, NJ (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: Alexander-von-Humboldt foundation; MIT Pappalardo Fellowship; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

Grant/Contract Number:: FG02-99ER45790

OSTI ID:: 1850216

Journal Information:: Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 26 Vol. 125; ISSN 0031-9007

Publisher:: American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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