Holon Wigner Crystal in a Lightly Doped Kagome Quantum Spin Liquid

Journal Article · Mon Aug 07 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.067002· OSTI ID:1389553

Jiang, Hong -Chen ^[1]; Devereaux, T. ^[1]; Kivelson, S. A. ^[2]

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1. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
2. Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States)

We address the problem of a lightly doped spin liquid through a large-scale density-matrix renormalization group study of the t–J model on a kagome lattice with a small but nonzero concentration δ of doped holes. It is now widely accepted that the undoped (δ = 0) spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet has a spin-liquid ground state. Theoretical arguments have been presented that light doping of such a spin liquid could give rise to a high temperature superconductor or an exotic topological Fermi liquid metal. Instead, we infer that the doped holes form an insulating charge-density wave state with one doped hole per unit cell, i.e., a Wigner crystal. Spin correlations remain short ranged, as in the spin-liquid parent state, from which we infer that the state is a crystal of spinless holons, rather than of holes. In conclusion, our results may be relevant to kagome lattice herbertsmithite upon doping.

• Research Organization: SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-76SF00515
• OSTI ID: 1389553
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1374221
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 119, Issue 6; ISSN 0031-9007
• Publisher: American Physical Society (APS)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS