Field-driven spin liquids in Kitaev materials

APA

Trebst, S. (2019). Field-driven spin liquids in Kitaev materials. Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. https://pirsa.org/19050018

MLA

Trebst, Simon. Field-driven spin liquids in Kitaev materials. Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, May. 02, 2019, https://pirsa.org/19050018

BibTex

          @misc{ scivideos_PIRSA:19050018,
            doi = {10.48660/19050018},
            url = {https://pirsa.org/19050018},
            author = {Trebst, Simon},
            keywords = {Quantum Matter},
            language = {en},
            title = {Field-driven spin liquids in Kitaev materials},
            publisher = {Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics},
            year = {2019},
            month = {may},
            note = {PIRSA:19050018 see, \url{https://scivideos.org/pirsa/19050018}}
          }
          

Simon Trebst Universität zu Köln

Source Repository PIRSA
Collection

Abstract

Kitaev materials — spin-orbit assisted Mott insulators, in which local, spin-orbit entangled j=1/2 moments form that are subject to strong bond-directional interactions — have attracted broad interest for their potential to realize spin liquids. Experimentally, a number of 4d and 5d systems have been widely studied including the honeycomb materials Na2IrO3, α-Li2IrO3, and RuCl3 as candidate spin liquid compounds — however, all of these materials magnetically order at sufficiently low temperatures. In this talk, I will discuss the physics of Kitaev materials that plays out when applying magnetic fields. Experiments on RuCl3 indicate the formation of a chiral spin liquid that gives rise to an observed quantized thermal Hall effect. Conceptually, this asks for a deeper understanding of the physics of the Kitaev model in tilted magnetic fields. I will report on our recent numerical studies that give strong evidence for a Higgs transition from the well known Z2 topological spin liquid to a gapless U(1) spin liquid with a spinon Fermi surface and put this into perspective of experimental studies.