Spinon Fermi Surface in a Cluster Mott Insulator Model on a Triangular Lattice and Possible Application to 1T−TaS₂

Abstract

1T−TaS₂ is a cluster Mott insulator on the triangular lattice with 13 Ta atoms forming a star of David cluster as the unit cell. We derive a two-dimensional XXZ spin-1/2 model with a four-spin ring exchange term to describe the effective low energy physics of a monolayer 1T−TaS₂, where the effective spin-1/2 degrees of freedom arises from the Kramers degenerate spin-orbital states on each star of David. A large scale density matrix renormalization group simulation is further performed on this effective model and we find a gapless spin liquid phase with a spinon Fermi surface at a moderate to large strength region of the four-spin ring exchange term. All peaks in the static spin structure factor are found to be located on the “2k[subscript F]” surface of a half-filled spinon on the triangular lattice. Experiments to detect the spinon Fermi surface phase in 1T−TaS₂ are discussed.