Spin-Liquid Ground State of the
            <i>S</i>
            = 1/2 Kagome Heisenberg Antiferromagnet

Yan, Simeng; Huse, David A.; White, Steven R.

doi:10.1126/science.1201080

Cited by 1,217 publications

(1,460 citation statements)

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“…model is believed to be some sort of QSL state without the magnetic LRO, although its nature is still under hot debate. Various scenarios, including the Z 2 spin liquid [20][21][22][23][24], the algebraic U(1) spin liquid [25][26][27][28], the chiral spin liquid [29] and the valence bond crystal (VBC) [30][31][32] etc. have been proposed.…”

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confidence: 99%

Quantum Spin-Liquid Behavior in the Spin-1/2 Random-Bond Heisenberg Antiferromagnet on the Kagome Lattice

2014

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The effect of the quenched bond-randomness on the ordering of the S = 1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on the kagome lattice is investigated by means of an exact-diagonalization method. When the randomness exceeds a critical value, the ground state of the model exhibits a transition within the non-magnetic state into the randomness-relevant gapless spin-liquid state. Implications to the S = 1/2 kagome-lattice antiferromagnet herbertsmithite is discussed.Since the proposal by P.W. Anderson of the resonating valence bond state [1], the quantum spin-liquid (QSL) state possibly realized in certain S = 1/2 frustrated magnets has attracted interest of researchers [2]. After a long experimental quest, several candidate materials were recently reported in geometrically frustrated magnets, including both the triangular-lattice and the kagome-lattice antiferromagnets (AFs).Examples of the triangular-lattice AF might be S = 1/2 organic salts such as κ-(ET) 2 Cu 2 (CN) 3 [3][4][5][6] and [7][8][9][10], which exhibit no magnetic ordering, neither regular nor random, down to a very low temperature. The QSL state of these compounds exhibits gapless behaviors characterized by, e.g., the lowtemperature specific heat [4,9] or the thermal conductivity [5,8] linear in the absolute temperature T . An example of the second category, the kagome-lattice AF, might be herbertsmithite CuZn 3 (OH) 6 Cl 2 [11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. No magnetic order is observed down to 20mK in spite of the exchange coupling of 180K, while gapless behaviors are observed in various physical quantities.The origin of the QSL behavior observed in these triangular-lattice organic salts and the kagome-lattice herbertsmithite has attracted tremendous interest, and various theoretical proposals have been made. The simplest possible reference model might be the S = 1/2 AF Heisenberg model with the nearest-neighbor (n.n.) bilinear coupling. In the triangular case, the ground state of such n.n. model is known to be the standard AF longrange order (LRO), the 120-degrees structure [18,19]. Hence, to explain the QSL behavior observed in these organic salts, some ingredient not taken into account in the simplest Heisenberg model is required. In the kagome case, by contrast, the ground state of the n.n. model is believed to be some sort of QSL state without the magnetic LRO, although its nature is still under hot debate. Various scenarios, including the Z 2 spin liquid [20][21][22][23][24], the algebraic U(1) spin liquid [25][26][27][28], the chiral spin liquid [29] and the valence bond crystal (VBC) [30][31][32] etc. have been proposed. It is not entirely clear at the present stage, however, which of these, or any of these, applies to the experimentally observed QSL state of herbertsmithite.Most of the recent theories pre-assumes that the system is clean enough that the quenched randomness plays a negligible role. Meanwhile, it was recently suggested in ref. [33] that the QSL of the triangular-lattice organic salts might be the randomness-induced one, the randomsi...

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confidence: 99%

Quantum Spin-Liquid Behavior in the Spin-1/2 Random-Bond Heisenberg Antiferromagnet on the Kagome Lattice

2014

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“…Some, such as emergent gauge structures and fractional charges, are implicated in a wide range of future technologies like high-temperature superconductivity 1,2 and topological quantum computing 3 . It is therefore remarkable that, despite extensive examination of the basic theoretical ingredients required to promote a 2D QSL in microscopic models 4,5 , the state remains elusive, with only a few experimental candidates existing today 6,7 .…”

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confidence: 99%

A two-dimensional spin liquid in quantum kagome ice

2015

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Actively sought since the turn of the century, two-dimensional quantum spin liquids (QSLs) are exotic phases of matter where magnetic moments remain disordered even at zero temperature. Despite ongoing searches, QSLs remain elusive, due to a lack of concrete knowledge of the microscopic mechanisms that inhibit magnetic order in materials. Here we study a model for a broad class of frustrated magnetic rare-earth pyrochlore materials called quantum spin ices. When subject to an external magnetic field along the [111] crystallographic direction, the resulting interactions contain a mix of geometric frustration and quantum fluctuations in decoupled two-dimensional kagome planes. Using quantum Monte Carlo simulations, we identify a set of interactions sufficient to promote a groundstate with no magnetic long-range order, and a gap to excitations, consistent with a Z 2 spin liquid phase. This suggests an experimental procedure to search for two-dimensional QSLs within a class of pyrochlore quantum spin ice materials.

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“…While focusing on specific models, we stress that the two mechanisms described are model-independent as long as the global SU (2) [15] for reviews) realize the S = 1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnetic model on the kagome lattice. Yan et al [12] presented some evidence that the ground state of the model is a Z 2 spin liquid. The vison spectrum were studied by several groups [36,39,40].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such phases and excitations could exist in low energy limits of Heisenberg model thanks to universality. The authors of an extensive DMRG [12] study of spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnetic model on the kagome lattice concluded that its ground state is a Z 2 spin liquid. Studies of the multi-spin exchange model [13,14] on triangular lattice found a gapped spin-liquid phase that looks like a Z 2 liquid.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detecting nonmagnetic excitations in quantum magnets

Hao

2012

Phys. Rev. B

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Many unconventional quantum phases host special non-magnetic excitations such as photons and visons. We discuss two possible ways to detect these excitations experimentally. Firstly, spin-lattice coupling mixes the excitations with phonons. The phonon spectral function acquires new features that can be detected by neutron or X-ray scattering. Secondly, valence-bond fluctuations translate into charge density fluctuations on non-bipartite lattices. Such charge fluctuations can be characterized by conventional spectroscopies such as Terahertz spectroscopy. As by-products, we discuss the general mechanisms of spin-Peierls transitions in two and three dimensional spin liquids.

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Spin-Liquid Ground State of the S = 1/2 Kagome Heisenberg Antiferromagnet

Cited by 1,217 publications

References 40 publications

Quantum Spin-Liquid Behavior in the Spin-1/2 Random-Bond Heisenberg Antiferromagnet on the Kagome Lattice

Quantum Spin-Liquid Behavior in the Spin-1/2 Random-Bond Heisenberg Antiferromagnet on the Kagome Lattice

A two-dimensional spin liquid in quantum kagome ice

Detecting nonmagnetic excitations in quantum magnets

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