A search for spinon echoes in the Ising chain CoNb<sub>2</sub>O<sub>6</sub>

ORAL

Abstract

CoNb2O6, a twisted Kitaev chain, is a promising candidate for observing transverse field Ising chain (TFIC)-like low-energy 1D excitations [1]. The low energy excitations of a TFIC are hypothesized to be topologically-protected fractionalized spin-1/2 quasiparticles, often called ‘spinons’. Spinons must always be excited in pairs and there are many ways to deposit energy and momentum into two particles; this leads to a broad absorption continuum that hides most of the information about spinon lifetimes and lineshapes. Recent theory has predicted that detection of spinon echoes could enable determination of these properties [2]. UCSB's free electron laser-powered pulsed electron magnetic resonance spectrometer has been used to measure spin echoes in various paramagnetic systems at 240 GHz [3,4] and is uniquely positioned to detect spinon echoes. We will present our progress toward measuring spinon echoes in CoNb2O6, from which we are currently able to place an upper bound on spinon lifetimes.

[1] C. M. Morris et. al., Nat. Phys. (2021).

[2] Y. Wan and N. P. Armitage, Phys. Rev. Lett. (2019).

[3] S. Takahashi et. al., Nature (2012).

[4] M. Fataftah, et. al., JACS (2020).

*UCSB funding: UCOP MRI-19-601107, NSF DMR-1126894, NSF-DMR-1626681; JHU funding: GBMF9454, and DE-SC0019331.

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Presenters

  • Brad D Price

    • Department of Physics, University of California -- Santa Barbara

Authors

  • Brad D Price

    • Department of Physics, University of California -- Santa Barbara

  • Xiaoling Wang

    • Department of Physics, University of California -- Santa Barbara

  • Mathilde Papillon

    • Department of Physics, University of California -- Santa Barbara

  • Jason W Krizan

    • Department of Chemistry, Princeton University

  • Robert J Cava

    • Princeton University
    • Department of Chemistry, Princeton University

  • Tyrel M McQueen

    • Johns Hopkins University
    • Department of Chemistry, The Johns Hopkins University

  • Seyed M Koohpayeh

    • The Institute for Quantum Matter, Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University

  • N. P Armitage

    • Johns Hopkins University
    • Johns Hopikns Univ.
    • The Institute for Quantum Matter, Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University

  • Mark S Sherwin

    • University of California, Santa Barbara
    • Department of Physics, University of California -- Santa Barbara