Spinon Phonon Interaction and Ultrasonic Attenuation in Quantum Spin Liquids
Name
Zhou-2011-Spinon Phonon Interaction and Ultrasonic Attenuation in Quantum Spin Liquids.pdf
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173.96 KB
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Author(s)
Zhou, Yi
Lee, Patrick A.
Date Issued
February 2011
Journal
Physical review letters
Publisher
American Physical Society
Citation
Zhou, Yi, and Patrick Lee. “Spinon Phonon Interaction and Ultrasonic Attenuation in Quantum Spin Liquids.” Physical Review Letters 106.5 (2011) : n. pag. © 2011 American Physical Society
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Several experimental candidates for quantum spin liquids have been discovered in the past few years which appear to support gapless fermionic S=1/2 excitations called spinons. The spinons may form a Fermi sea coupled to a U(1) gauge field, and may undergo a pairing instability. We show that despite being charge neutral, the spinons couple to phonons in exactly the same way that electrons do in the long wavelength limit. Therefore, we can use sound attenuation to measure the spinon mass and lifetime. Furthermore, transverse ultrasonic attenuation is a direct probe of the onset of pairing because the Meissner effect of the gauge field causes a “rapid fall” of the attenuation at Tc [T subscript c] in addition to the reduction due to the opening of the energy gap. This phenomenon, well known in clean superconductors, may reveal the existence of the U(1) gauge field.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
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Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.056402
