IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v8y2017i1d10.1038_s41467-017-01177-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Breakdown of magnons in a strongly spin-orbital coupled magnet

Author

Listed:
  • Stephen M. Winter

    (Institut für Theoretische Physik, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt)

  • Kira Riedl

    (Institut für Theoretische Physik, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt)

  • Pavel A. Maksimov

    (University of California)

  • Alexander L. Chernyshev

    (University of California)

  • Andreas Honecker

    (Laboratoire de Physique Théorique et Modélisation, CNRS UMR 8089, Université de Cergy-Pontoise)

  • Roser Valentí

    (Institut für Theoretische Physik, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt)

Abstract

The description of quantized collective excitations stands as a landmark in the quantum theory of condensed matter. A prominent example occurs in conventional magnets, which support bosonic magnons—quantized harmonic fluctuations of the ordered spins. In striking contrast is the recent discovery that strongly spin-orbital-coupled magnets, such as α-RuCl3, may display a broad excitation continuum inconsistent with conventional magnons. Due to incomplete knowledge of the underlying interactions unraveling the nature of this continuum remains challenging. The most discussed explanation refers to a coherent continuum of fractional excitations analogous to the celebrated Kitaev spin liquid. Here, we present a more general scenario. We propose that the observed continuum represents incoherent excitations originating from strong magnetic anharmonicity that naturally occurs in such materials. This scenario fully explains the observed inelastic magnetic response of α-RuCl3 and reveals the presence of nontrivial excitations in such materials extending well beyond the Kitaev state.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephen M. Winter & Kira Riedl & Pavel A. Maksimov & Alexander L. Chernyshev & Andreas Honecker & Roser Valentí, 2017. "Breakdown of magnons in a strongly spin-orbital coupled magnet," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 8(1), pages 1-8, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-017-01177-0
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-01177-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-01177-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-017-01177-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xiaojian Bai & Shang-Shun Zhang & Hao Zhang & Zhiling Dun & W. Adam Phelan & V. Ovidiu Garlea & Martin Mourigal & Cristian D. Batista, 2023. "Instabilities of heavy magnons in an anisotropic magnet," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    2. Fen Xue & Shy-Jay Lin & Mingyuan Song & William Hwang & Christoph Klewe & Chien-Min Lee & Emrah Turgut & Padraic Shafer & Arturas Vailionis & Yen-Lin Huang & Wilman Tsai & Xinyu Bao & Shan X. Wang, 2023. "Field-free spin-orbit torque switching assisted by in-plane unconventional spin torque in ultrathin [Pt/Co]N," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
    3. Han Li & Enze Lv & Ning Xi & Yuan Gao & Yang Qi & Wei Li & Gang Su, 2024. "Magnetocaloric effect of topological excitations in Kitaev magnets," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.
    4. Xu-Guang Zhou & Han Li & Yasuhiro H. Matsuda & Akira Matsuo & Wei Li & Nobuyuki Kurita & Gang Su & Koichi Kindo & Hidekazu Tanaka, 2023. "Possible intermediate quantum spin liquid phase in α-RuCl3 under high magnetic fields up to 100 T," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-7, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-017-01177-0. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.