期刊
PHYSICAL REVIEW B
卷 98, 期 18, 页码 -出版社
AMER PHYSICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.98.184408
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资金
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) [SFB 1143, KA 1694/8-1]
Topologically ordered states of matter are generically characterized by excitations with quantum number fractionalization. A prime example is the spin liquid realized in Kitaev's honeycomb-lattice compass model where spin-flip excitations fractionalize into Majorana fermions and Ising gauge fluxes. While numerous compounds have been proposed to be proximate to such a spin-liquid phase, clear-cut evidence for fractionalized excitations is lacking. Here we employ microwave absorption measurements to study the low-energy excitations in alpha-RuCl3 over a wide range of frequencies, magnetic fields, and temperatures, covering in particular the vicinity of the field-driven quantum phase transition where long-range magnetic order disappears. In addition to conventional gapped magnon modes we find a highly unusual broad continuum characteristic of fractionalization which-most remarkably-extends to energies below the lowest sharp mode and to temperatures significantly higher than the ordering temperature and develops a gap of a nontrivial origin in strong magnetic fields. Our results unravel the signatures of fractionalized excitations in alpha-RuCl3 and pave the way to a more complete understanding of the Kitaev spin liquid and its instabilities.
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