Precursor of pair-density wave in doping Kitaev spin liquid on the honeycomb lattice

Journal Article · 02 July 2021 · npj Quantum Materials

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41535-021-00363-0 · OSTI ID:1805052

Peng, Cheng; Jiang, Yi-Fan; Devereaux, Thomas P. ; Jiang, Hong-Chen

Abstract We study the effects of doping the Kitaev model on the honeycomb lattice where the spins interact via the bond-directional interaction J _K , which is known to have a quantum spin liquid as its exact ground state. The effect of hole doping is studied within the t - J _K model on a three-leg cylinder using density-matrix renormalization group. Upon light doping, we find that the ground state of the system has a dominant quasi-long-range charge-density-wave correlations but short-range single-particle correlations. In the pairing channel, the even-parity superconducting correlation is dominant with d -wave-like symmetry, which oscillates in sign as a function of separation with a period equal to that of the spin-density wave and two times the charge-density wave. Although these correlations fall rapidly (possibly exponentially) at long distances, this is never-the-less the example where a pair-density wave is the leading instability in the pairing channel on the honeycomb lattice.

• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• Grant/Contract Number: NONE; AC02-76SF00515
• OSTI ID: 1805052
• Journal Information: npj Quantum Materials, Journal Name: npj Quantum Materials Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 6; ISSN 2397-4648
• Publisher: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United Kingdom
• Language: English