Low-energy magneto-optics of Tb2Ti2O7 in a [111] magnetic field

The pyrochlore magnet Tb2Ti2O7 shows a lack of magnetic order to low temperatures and is considered to be a quantum spin liquid candidate. We perform time-domain THz spectroscopy on high-quality Tb2Ti2O7 crystals and study the low-energy excitations as a function of [111] magnetic field with high energy resolution. The low-energy crystal-field excitations change their energies anomalously under magnetic field. Despite several sharp field-dependent changes, we show that the material's spectrum can be described not by phase transitions but by field-dependent hybridization between the low-energy crystal-field levels. We highlight the strong coupling between spin and lattice degrees of freedom in Tb2Ti2O7 as evidenced by the magnetic-field tunable crystal-field environment. Calculations based on single ion physics with field-induced symmetry reduction of the crystal-field environment can reproduce our data.

Automated summary

Researchers performed time-domain THz spectroscopy on high-quality Tb2Ti2O7 crystals, revealing anomalous energy changes of low-energy crystal-field excitations under magnetic field. The phenomenon can be explained by the field-dependent crystal-field environment controlled by the magnetic field.