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The article presents a study of the collective excitations in Ta2NiSe5 to prove the coherent order parameter oscillations in the ground state of the bandgap semiconductor. It demonstrates the existence of a coherent amplitude response in the excitonic insulator (EI) Ta2NiSe5, identifying a phonon-coupled state of the condensate characterizing the transient order parameter of the EI as a function of excitation and temperature density.

The complex iridium oxide Na3Ir3O8 with a B-site ordered spinel structure was synthesized in single crystalline form, where the chiral hyper-kagome lattice of Ir ions, as observed in the spin-liquid candidate Na4Ir3O8, was identified. The average valence of Ir is 4.33+ and, therefore, Na3Ir3O8 can be viewed as a doped analogue of the hyper-kagome spin liquid with Ir 4+. The transport measurements, combined with the electronic structure calculations, indicate that the ground state of Na3Ir3O8 is a low carrier density semi-metal. We argue that the semi-metallic state is produced by a competition of the molecular orbital splitting of t2g orbitals on Ir3 triangles with strong spin-orbit coupling inherent to heavy Ir ions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the analysis of magnetic susceptibility χ(T) of Sr2IrO4 single crystal in the paramagnetic phase. We formulate the theoretical susceptibility based on isotropic Heisenberg antiferromagnetism incorporating the Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interaction exactly, and include the interlayer couplings in a mean-field approximation. χ(T) above TN was found to be well described by the model, indicating the predominant Heisenberg exchange consistent with the microscopic theory. The analysis points to a competition of nearest and next-nearest-neighbor interlayer couplings, which results in the up-up-down-down configuration of the in-plane canting moments identified by the diffraction experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The excitonic insulator is an electronically driven phase of matter that emerges upon the spontaneous formation and Bose condensation of excitons. Detecting this exotic order in candidate materials is a subject of paramount importance, as the size of the excitonic gap in the band structure establishes the potential of this collective state for superfluid energy transport. However, the identification of this phase in real solids is hindered by the coexistence of a structural order parameter with the same symmetry as the excitonic order. Only a few materials are currently believed to host a dominant excitonic phase, Ta2NiSe5 being the most promising. Here, we test this scenario by using an ultrashort laser pulse to quench the broken-symmetry phase of this transition metal chalcogenide. Tracking the dynamics of the material's electronic and crystal structure after light excitation reveals spectroscopic fingerprints that are compatible only with a primary order parameter of phononic nature. We rationalize our findings through state-of-the-art calculations, confirming that the structural order accounts for most of the gap opening. Our results suggest that the spontaneous symmetry breaking in Ta2NiSe5 is mostly of structural character, hampering the possibility to realize quasi-dissipationless energy transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Charge order is universal to all hole-doped cuprates. Yet, the driving interactions remain an unsolved problem. Electron-electron interaction is widely believed to be essential, whereas the role of electron-phonon interaction is unclear. We report an ultrahigh-resolution resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) study of the in-plane bond-stretching phonon mode in stripe-ordered cuprate La1.675Eu0.2Sr0.125CuO4. Phonon softening and lifetime shortening are found around the charge ordering wave vector. In addition to these self-energy effects, the electron-phonon coupling is probed by its proportionality to the RIXS cross section. We find an enhancement of the electron-phonon coupling around the charge-stripe ordering wave vector upon cooling into the low-temperature tetragonal structure phase. These results suggest that, in addition to electronic correlations, electron-phonon coupling contributes substantially to the emergence of long-range charge-stripe order in cuprates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]