Confinement-Deconfinement Transition as an Indication of Spin-Liquid-Type Behavior in Na[subscript 2]IrO[subscript 3]
Name
PhysRevLett.114.017203.pdf
Size
673.77 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
93c05ba08ae575951ae3f1cb7e013bed
Author(s)
Alpichshev, Zhanybek
Mahmood, Fahad
Cao, Gang
Gedik, Nuh
Date Issued
January 2015
Journal
Physical Review Letters
Publisher
American Physical Society
Citation
Alpichshev, Zhanybek et al. “Confinement-Deconfinement Transition as an Indication of Spin-Liquid-Type Behavior in Na[subscript 2]IrO[subscript 3].” Physical Review Letters 114.1 (2015): 017203-1-017203-5. © 2015 American Physical Society
Version
Final published version
Abstract
We use ultrafast optical spectroscopy to observe binding of charged single-particle excitations (SE) in the magnetically frustrated Mott insulator Na[subscript 2]IrO[subscript 3]. Above the antiferromagnetic ordering temperature (T[subscript N]) the system response is due to both Hubbard excitons (HE) and their constituent unpaired SE. The SE response becomes strongly suppressed immediately below (T[subscript N]). We argue that this increase in binding energy is due to a unique interplay between the frustrated Kitaev and the weak Heisenberg-type ordering term in the Hamiltonian, mediating an effective interaction between the spin-singlet SE. This interaction grows with distance causing the SE to become trapped in the HE, similar to quark confinement inside hadrons. This binding of charged particles, induced by magnetic ordering, is a result of a confinement-deconfinement transition of spin excitations. This observation provides evidence for spin liquid type behavior which is expected in Na[subscript 2]IrO[subscript 3].
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
Terms of Use
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.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.017203
