Observing spin fractionalization in the Kitaev spin liquid via temperature evolution of indirect resonant inelastic x-ray scattering
Abstract
Motivated by the ongoing effort to search for high-resolution signatures of quantum spin liquids, we investigate the temperature dependence of the indirect resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) response for the Kitaev honeycomb model. Here, we find that, as a result of spin fractionalization, the RIXS response changes qualitatively at two well-separated temperature scales, TL and TH, which correspond to the characteristic energies of the two kinds of fractionalized excitations, Z2 gauge fluxes and Majorana fermions, respectively. While thermally excited Z2 gauge fluxes at temperature TL lead to a general broadening and softening of the response, the thermal proliferation of Majorana fermions at temperature TH ~ 10TL results in a significant shift of the spectral weight, both in terms of energy and momentum. Due to its exclusively indirect nature, the RIXS process we consider gives rise to a universal magnetic response and, from an experimental perspective, it directly corresponds to the K-edge of Ru3+ in the Kitaev candidate material α–RuCl3.
- Authors:
-
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States)
- Boston Univ., MA (United States)
- Imperial College London (United Kingdom)
- Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1637706
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1512831
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0018056
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Physical Review B
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 99; Journal Issue: 18; Journal ID: ISSN 2469-9950
- Publisher:
- American Physical Society (APS)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY; fractionalization; Majorana fermions; quantum spin liquid; honeycomb lattice; Kitaev model; resonant inelastic x-ray scattering
Citation Formats
Halász, Gábor B., Kourtis, Stefanos, Knolle, Johannes, and Perkins, Natalia B. Observing spin fractionalization in the Kitaev spin liquid via temperature evolution of indirect resonant inelastic x-ray scattering. United States: N. p., 2019.
Web. doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.99.184417.
Halász, Gábor B., Kourtis, Stefanos, Knolle, Johannes, & Perkins, Natalia B. Observing spin fractionalization in the Kitaev spin liquid via temperature evolution of indirect resonant inelastic x-ray scattering. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.99.184417
Halász, Gábor B., Kourtis, Stefanos, Knolle, Johannes, and Perkins, Natalia B. Wed .
"Observing spin fractionalization in the Kitaev spin liquid via temperature evolution of indirect resonant inelastic x-ray scattering". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.99.184417. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1637706.
@article{osti_1637706,
title = {Observing spin fractionalization in the Kitaev spin liquid via temperature evolution of indirect resonant inelastic x-ray scattering},
author = {Halász, Gábor B. and Kourtis, Stefanos and Knolle, Johannes and Perkins, Natalia B.},
abstractNote = {Motivated by the ongoing effort to search for high-resolution signatures of quantum spin liquids, we investigate the temperature dependence of the indirect resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) response for the Kitaev honeycomb model. Here, we find that, as a result of spin fractionalization, the RIXS response changes qualitatively at two well-separated temperature scales, TL and TH, which correspond to the characteristic energies of the two kinds of fractionalized excitations, Z2 gauge fluxes and Majorana fermions, respectively. While thermally excited Z2 gauge fluxes at temperature TL lead to a general broadening and softening of the response, the thermal proliferation of Majorana fermions at temperature TH ~ 10TL results in a significant shift of the spectral weight, both in terms of energy and momentum. Due to its exclusively indirect nature, the RIXS process we consider gives rise to a universal magnetic response and, from an experimental perspective, it directly corresponds to the K-edge of Ru3+ in the Kitaev candidate material α–RuCl3.},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevB.99.184417},
journal = {Physical Review B},
number = 18,
volume = 99,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed May 15 00:00:00 EDT 2019},
month = {Wed May 15 00:00:00 EDT 2019}
}
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
Other availability
Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal
Cited by: 15 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science
Web of Science
Figures / Tables:
FIG. 1: Illustration of an indirect RIXS process at the Ru3+ K-edge creating Majorana fermion excitations in the Kitaev honeycomb model, due to the local modification of magnetic couplings in the intermediate state. The three bond types x, y, and z of the lattice are marked by red, green, andmore »
All figures and tables
(5 total)
Save to My Library
You must Sign In or Create an Account in order to save documents to your library.
Works referenced in this record:
Theory of resonant inelastic x-ray scattering in iridium oxide compounds: Probing spin-orbit-entangled ground states and excitations
journal, July 2011
- Ament, Luuk J. P.; Khaliullin, Giniyat; van den Brink, Jeroen
- Physical Review B, Vol. 84, Issue 2
Incommensurate counterrotating magnetic order stabilized by Kitaev interactions in the layered honeycomb
journal, May 2016
- Williams, S. C.; Johnson, R. D.; Freund, F.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 93, Issue 19
Dynamics of a Two-Dimensional Quantum Spin Liquid: Signatures of Emergent Majorana Fermions and Fluxes
journal, May 2014
- Knolle, J.; Kovrizhin, D. L.; Chalker, J. T.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 112, Issue 20
Resonant Raman scattering theory for Kitaev models and their Majorana fermion boundary modes
journal, September 2016
- Perreault, Brent; Knolle, Johannes; Perkins, Natalia B.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 94, Issue 10
Challenges in design of Kitaev materials: Magnetic interactions from competing energy scales
journal, June 2016
- Winter, Stephen M.; Li, Ying; Jeschke, Harald O.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 93, Issue 21
Correlated Quantum Phenomena in the Strong Spin-Orbit Regime
journal, March 2014
- Witczak-Krempa, William; Chen, Gang; Kim, Yong Baek
- Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics, Vol. 5, Issue 1
as a Novel Relativistic Mott Insulator with a 340-meV Gap
journal, December 2012
- Comin, R.; Levy, G.; Ludbrook, B.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 109, Issue 26
Raman scattering in correlated thin films as a probe of chargeless surface states
journal, August 2016
- Perreault, Brent; Knolle, Johannes; Perkins, Natalia B.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 94, Issue 6
Unconventional magnetic order on the hyperhoneycomb Kitaev lattice in : Full solution via magnetic resonant x-ray diffraction
journal, November 2014
- Biffin, A.; Johnson, R. D.; Choi, Sungkyun
- Physical Review B, Vol. 90, Issue 20
Models and materials for generalized Kitaev magnetism
journal, November 2017
- Winter, Stephen M.; Tsirlin, Alexander A.; Daghofer, Maria
- Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, Vol. 29, Issue 49
Phase Diagram and Quantum Order by Disorder in the Kitaev Honeycomb Magnet
journal, December 2015
- Rousochatzakis, Ioannis; Reuther, Johannes; Thomale, Ronny
- Physical Review X, Vol. 5, Issue 4
Resonant inelastic x-ray scattering studies of elementary excitations
journal, June 2011
- Ament, Luuk J. P.; van Veenendaal, Michel; Devereaux, Thomas P.
- Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 83, Issue 2
Resonant inelastic x-ray scattering operators for orbital systems
journal, August 2017
- Kim, B. J.; Khaliullin, Giniyat
- Physical Review B, Vol. 96, Issue 8
Low-Energy Spin Dynamics of the Honeycomb Spin Liquid Beyond the Kitaev Limit
journal, July 2016
- Song, Xue-Yang; You, Yi-Zhuang; Balents, Leon
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 117, Issue 3
Dynamics of a quantum spin liquid beyond integrability: The Kitaev-Heisenberg- model in an augmented parton mean-field theory
journal, April 2018
- Knolle, Johannes; Bhattacharjee, Subhro; Moessner, Roderich
- Physical Review B, Vol. 97, Issue 13
Resonant Inelastic X-Ray Scattering Response of the Kitaev Honeycomb Model
journal, September 2016
- Halász, Gábor B.; Perkins, Natalia B.; van den Brink, Jeroen
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 117, Issue 12
Frequency moments for two-spin light scattering in antiferromagnets
journal, March 1974
- Brya, W. J.; Richards, Peter M.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 9, Issue 5
Noncoplanar and Counterrotating Incommensurate Magnetic Order Stabilized by Kitaev Interactions in
journal, November 2014
- Biffin, A.; Johnson, R. D.; Kimchi, I.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 113, Issue 19
Importance of anisotropic exchange interactions in honeycomb iridates: Minimal model for zigzag antiferromagnetic order in
journal, October 2014
- Sizyuk, Yuriy; Price, Craig; Wölfle, Peter
- Physical Review B, Vol. 90, Issue 15
Anisotropic magnetism in the honeycomb system: Susceptibility, specific heat, and zero-field NMR
journal, May 2015
- Majumder, M.; Schmidt, M.; Rosner, H.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 91, Issue 18
Scattering Continuum and Possible Fractionalized Excitations in
journal, April 2015
- Sandilands, Luke J.; Tian, Yao; Plumb, Kemp W.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 114, Issue 14
A spin–orbital-entangled quantum liquid on a honeycomb lattice
journal, February 2018
- Kitagawa, K.; Takayama, T.; Matsumoto, Y.
- Nature, Vol. 554, Issue 7692
: A spin-orbit assisted Mott insulator on a honeycomb lattice
journal, July 2014
- Plumb, K. W.; Clancy, J. P.; Sandilands, L. J.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 90, Issue 4
The theory of indirect resonant inelastic X-ray scattering on magnons
journal, October 2007
- van den Brink, J.
- Europhysics Letters (EPL), Vol. 80, Issue 4
Kitaev exchange and field-induced quantum spin-liquid states in honeycomb α-RuCl3
journal, November 2016
- Yadav, Ravi; Bogdanov, Nikolay A.; Katukuri, Vamshi M.
- Scientific Reports, Vol. 6, Issue 1
Kitaev-Heisenberg Model on a Honeycomb Lattice: Possible Exotic Phases in Iridium Oxides
journal, July 2010
- Chaloupka, Jiří; Jackeli, George; Khaliullin, Giniyat
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 105, Issue 2
Raman Scattering Signatures of Kitaev Spin Liquids in Iridates with or Li
journal, October 2014
- Knolle, J.; Chern, Gia-Wei; Kovrizhin, D. L.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 113, Issue 18
Thermal transport in a two-dimensional spin liquid
journal, November 2017
- Metavitsiadis, Alexandros; Pidatella, Angelo; Brenig, Wolfram
- Physical Review B, Vol. 96, Issue 20
Disorder in a Quantum Spin Liquid: Flux Binding and Local Moment Formation
journal, June 2010
- Willans, A. J.; Chalker, J. T.; Moessner, R.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 104, Issue 23
Majorana dynamical mean-field study of spin dynamics at finite temperatures in the honeycomb Kitaev model
journal, July 2017
- Yoshitake, Junki; Nasu, Joji; Kato, Yasuyuki
- Physical Review B, Vol. 96, Issue 2
Spin-fluctuation light scattering at high temperature
journal, April 1974
- Richards, Peter M.; Brya, W. J.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 9, Issue 7
First-Principles Study of the Honeycomb-Lattice Iridates in the Presence of Strong Spin-Orbit Interaction and Electron Correlations
journal, September 2014
- Yamaji, Youhei; Nomura, Yusuke; Kurita, Moyuru
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 113, Issue 10
Proximate Kitaev quantum spin liquid behaviour in a honeycomb magnet
journal, April 2016
- Banerjee, A.; Bridges, C. A.; Yan, J. -Q.
- Nature Materials, Vol. 15, Issue 7
Theory of Raman response in three-dimensional Kitaev spin liquids: Application to - and compounds
journal, September 2015
- Perreault, Brent; Knolle, Johannes; Perkins, Natalia B.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 92, Issue 9
Anyons in an exactly solved model and beyond
journal, January 2006
- Kitaev, Alexei
- Annals of Physics, Vol. 321, Issue 1
Monoclinic crystal structure of and the zigzag antiferromagnetic ground state
journal, December 2015
- Johnson, R. D.; Williams, S. C.; Haghighirad, A. A.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 92, Issue 23
Spin-Orbit Physics Giving Rise to Novel Phases in Correlated Systems: Iridates and Related Materials
journal, March 2016
- Rau, Jeffrey G.; Lee, Eric Kin-Ho; Kee, Hae-Young
- Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics, Vol. 7, Issue 1
Fermionic response from fractionalization in an insulating two-dimensional magnet
journal, July 2016
- Nasu, J.; Knolle, J.; Kovrizhin, D. L.
- Nature Physics, Vol. 12, Issue 10
Magnetic order in : A honeycomb-lattice quantum magnet with strong spin-orbit coupling
journal, April 2015
- Sears, J. A.; Songvilay, M.; Plumb, K. W.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 91, Issue 14
The vicinity of hyper-honeycomb β-Li2IrO3 to a three-dimensional Kitaev spin liquid state
null, January 2016
- Katukuri, Vamshi M.; Yadav, Ravi; Hozoi, Liviu
- London : Nature Publishing Group
Physics of the Kitaev Model: Fractionalization, Dynamic Correlations, and Material Connections
journal, March 2018
- Hermanns, M.; Kimchi, I.; Knolle, J.
- Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics, Vol. 9, Issue 1
Neutron scattering in the proximate quantum spin liquid α-RuCl 3
journal, June 2017
- Banerjee, Arnab; Yan, Jiaqiang; Knolle, Johannes
- Science, Vol. 356, Issue 6342
Hyperhoneycomb Iridate as a Platform for Kitaev Magnetism
journal, February 2015
- Takayama, T.; Kato, A.; Dinnebier, R.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 114, Issue 7
Generic Spin Model for the Honeycomb Iridates beyond the Kitaev Limit
journal, February 2014
- Rau, Jeffrey G.; Lee, Eric Kin-Ho; Kee, Hae-Young
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 112, Issue 7
Relevance of the Heisenberg-Kitaev Model for the Honeycomb Lattice Iridates
journal, March 2012
- Singh, Yogesh; Manni, S.; Reuther, J.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 108, Issue 12
Spin Waves and Revised Crystal Structure of Honeycomb Iridate
journal, March 2012
- Choi, S. K.; Coldea, R.; Kolmogorov, A. N.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 108, Issue 12
Majorana fermions in the Kitaev quantum spin system α-RuCl3
journal, September 2017
- Do, Seung-Hwan; Park, Sang-Youn; Yoshitake, Junki
- Nature Physics, Vol. 13, Issue 11
The vicinity of hyper-honeycomb β-Li2IrO3 to a three-dimensional Kitaev spin liquid state
journal, July 2016
- Katukuri, Vamshi M.; Yadav, Ravi; Hozoi, Liviu
- Scientific Reports, Vol. 6, Issue 1
Neutron scattering signatures of the 3D hyperhoneycomb Kitaev quantum spin liquid
journal, November 2015
- Smith, A.; Knolle, J.; Kovrizhin, D. L.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 92, Issue 18
Temperature evolution of spin dynamics in two- and three-dimensional Kitaev models: Influence of fluctuating flux
journal, August 2017
- Yoshitake, Junki; Nasu, Joji; Motome, Yukitoshi
- Physical Review B, Vol. 96, Issue 6
Direct evidence of a zigzag spin-chain structure in the honeycomb lattice: A neutron and x-ray diffraction investigation of single-crystal Na IrO
journal, May 2012
- Ye, Feng; Chi, Songxue; Cao, Huibo
- Physical Review B, Vol. 85, Issue 18
Probing Spinon Nodal Structures in Three-Dimensional Kitaev Spin Liquids
journal, August 2017
- Halász, Gábor B.; Perreault, Brent; Perkins, Natalia B.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 119, Issue 9
Antiferromagnetic Mott insulating state in single crystals of the honeycomb lattice material
journal, August 2010
- Singh, Yogesh; Gegenwart, P.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 82, Issue 6
Raman spectroscopic signature of fractionalized excitations in the harmonic-honeycomb iridates β- and γ-Li2IrO3
journal, July 2016
- Glamazda, A.; Lemmens, P.; Do, S. -H.
- Nature Communications, Vol. 7, Issue 1
Majorana spectroscopy of three-dimensional Kitaev spin liquids
journal, June 2016
- Smith, A.; Knolle, J.; Kovrizhin, D. L.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 93, Issue 23
Spherical analyzers and monochromators for resonant inelastic hard X-ray scattering: a compilation of crystals and reflections
journal, November 2012
- Gog, Thomas; Casa, Diego M.; Said, Ayman H.
- Journal of Synchrotron Radiation, Vol. 20, Issue 1
Light scattering from energy fluctuations in magnetic insulators
journal, January 1976
- Reiter, G. F.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 13, Issue 1
Dynamics of fractionalization in quantum spin liquids
journal, September 2015
- Knolle, J.; Kovrizhin, D. L.; Chalker, J. T.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 92, Issue 11
Fractional Spin Fluctuations as a Precursor of Quantum Spin Liquids: Majorana Dynamical Mean-Field Study for the Kitaev Model
journal, October 2016
- Yoshitake, Junki; Nasu, Joji; Motome, Yukitoshi
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 117, Issue 15
Spin-orbit excitations and electronic structure of the putative Kitaev magnet
journal, February 2016
- Sandilands, Luke J.; Tian, Yao; Reijnders, Anjan A.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 93, Issue 7
Site dilution in the Kitaev honeycomb model
journal, September 2011
- Willans, A. J.; Chalker, J. T.; Moessner, R.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 84, Issue 11
Doping a topological quantum spin liquid: Slow holes in the Kitaev honeycomb model
journal, July 2014
- Halász, Gábor B.; Chalker, J. T.; Moessner, R.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 90, Issue 3
Mott Insulators in the Strong Spin-Orbit Coupling Limit: From Heisenberg to a Quantum Compass and Kitaev Models
journal, January 2009
- Jackeli, G.; Khaliullin, G.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 102, Issue 1
Direct evidence for dominant bond-directional interactions in a honeycomb lattice iridate Na2IrO3
journal, May 2015
- Hwan Chun, Sae; Kim, Jong-Woo; Kim, Jungho
- Nature Physics, Vol. 11, Issue 6
Long-range magnetic ordering in Na IrO
journal, June 2011
- Liu, X.; Berlijn, T.; Yin, W. -G.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 83, Issue 22
Thermal fractionalization of quantum spins in a Kitaev model: Temperature-linear specific heat and coherent transport of Majorana fermions
journal, September 2015
- Nasu, Joji; Udagawa, Masafumi; Motome, Yukitoshi
- Physical Review B, Vol. 92, Issue 11
Neutron scattering in the proximate quantum spin liquid α-RuCl3.
text, January 2017
- Banerjee, Arnab; Yan, Jiaqiang; Knolle, Johannes
- Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository
Physics of the Kitaev model: fractionalization, dynamical correlations, and material connections
text, January 2018
- Hermanns, Maria; Kimchi, Itamar; Knolle, Johannes
- Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository
Majorana spectroscopy of three-dimensional Kitaev spin liquids
text, January 2016
- Smith, Adam; Knolle, Johannes; Kovrizhin, Dmitry
- Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository
Correlated quantum phenomena in the strong spin-orbit regime
text, January 2013
- Witczak-Krempa, William; Chen, Gang; Kim, Yong Baek
- arXiv
Generic spin model for the honeycomb iridates beyond the Kitaev limit
text, January 2013
- Rau, Jeffrey G.; Lee, Eric Kin-Ho; Kee, Hae-Young
- arXiv
Doping a topological quantum spin liquid: slow holes in the Kitaev honeycomb model
text, January 2014
- Halász, Gábor B.; Chalker, J. T.; Moessner, R.
- arXiv
Thermal fractionalization of quantum spins in a Kitaev model: $T$-linear specific heat and coherent transport of Majorana fermions
text, January 2015
- Nasu, Joji; Udagawa, Masafumi; Motome, Yukitoshi
- arXiv
Spin-Orbit Physics Giving Rise to Novel Phases in Correlated Systems: Iridates and Related Materials
text, January 2015
- Rau, Jeffrey G.; Lee, Eric Kin-Ho; Kee, Hae-Young
- arXiv
Neutron scattering signatures of the 3D hyper-honeycomb Kitaev quantum spin-liquid
text, January 2015
- Smith, A.; Knolle, J.; Kovrizhin, D. L.
- arXiv
Raman scattering in correlated thin films as a probe of chargeless surface states
text, January 2016
- Perreault, Brent; Knolle, Johannes; Perkins, Natalia B.
- arXiv
Fermionic response from fractionalization in an insulating two-dimensional magnet
text, January 2016
- Nasu, J.; Knolle, J.; Kovrizhin, D. L.
- arXiv
Challenges in Design of Kitaev Materials: Magnetic Interactions from Competing Energy Scales
text, January 2016
- Winter, Stephen M.; Li, Ying; Jeschke, Harald O.
- arXiv
Low-energy Spin Dynamics of the Honeycomb Spin Liquid Beyond the Kitaev Limit
text, January 2016
- Song, Xue-Yang; You, Yi-Zhuang; Balents, Leon
- arXiv
Resonant inelastic X-ray scattering response of the Kitaev honeycomb model
text, January 2016
- Halász, Gábor B.; Perkins, Natalia B.; Brink, Jeroen van den
- arXiv
Resonant Raman scattering theory for Kitaev models and their Majorana fermion boundary modes
text, January 2016
- Perreault, Brent; Knolle, Johannes; Perkins, Natalia B.
- arXiv
Resonant inelastic x-ray scattering operators for $t_{2g}$ orbital systems
text, January 2017
- Kim, B. J.; Khaliullin, Giniyat
- arXiv
Probing spinon nodal structures in three-dimensional Kitaev spin liquids
text, January 2017
- Halász, Gábor B.; Perreault, Brent; Perkins, Natalia B.
- arXiv
Models and Materials for Generalized Kitaev Magnetism
text, January 2017
- Winter, Stephen M.; Tsirlin, Alexander A.; Daghofer, Maria
- arXiv
Works referencing / citing this record:
Valence bond fluctuations in the Kitaev spin model
journal, January 2020
- Yang, Fan; Plekhanov, Kirill; Le Hur, Karyn
- Physical Review Research, Vol. 2, Issue 1
Figures / Tables found in this record:
Figures/Tables have been extracted from DOE-funded journal article accepted manuscripts.