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arXiv · 1508.05324

Neutron scattering signatures of the 3D hyper-honeycomb Kitaev quantum spin-liquid

A. Smith·J. Knolle·D. L. Kovrizhin·J. T. Chalker·R. Moessner
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Abstract

Motivated by recent synthesis of the hyper-honeycomb material $β$-$\mathrm{Li_2 Ir O_3}$, we study the dynamical structure factor (DSF) of the corresponding 3D Kitaev quantum spin-liquid (QSL), whose fractionalised degrees of freedom are Majorana fermions and emergent flux-loops. Properties of this 3D model are known to differ in important ways from those of its 2D counterpart -- it has finite-temperature phase transition, as well as distinct features in Raman response. We show, however, that the qualitative behaviour of the DSF is broadly dimension-independent. Characteristics of the 3D DSF include a response gap even in the gapless QSL phase and an energy dependence deriving from the Majorana fermion density of states. Since the majority of the response is from states containing a single Majorana excitation, our results suggest inelastic neutron scattering as the spectroscopy of choice to illuminate the physics of Majorana fermions in Kitaev QSLs.

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A. Smith, J. Knolle, D. L. Kovrizhin, J. T. Chalker, R. Moessner. 2015-08-21. Neutron scattering signatures of the 3D hyper-honeycomb Kitaev quantum spin-liquid. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.92.180408

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