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Magnetoelastic excitations in the pyrochlore spin liquid Tb$_2$Ti$_2$O$_7$
- Source :
- Physical Review Letters 112, 017203 (2014)
- Publication Year :
- 2013
-
Abstract
- At low temperatures, Tb$_2$Ti$_2$O$_7$ enters a spin liquid state, despite expectations of magnetic order and/or a structural distortion. Using neutron scattering, we have discovered that in this spin liquid state an excited crystal field level is coupled to a transverse acoustic phonon, forming a hybrid excitation. Magnetic and phononlike branches with identical dispersion relations can be identified, and the hybridization vanishes in the paramagnetic state. We suggest that Tb$_2$Ti$_2$O$_7$ is aptly named a "magnetoelastic spin liquid" and that the hybridization of the excitations suppresses both magnetic ordering and the structural distortion. The spin liquid phase of Tb$_2$Ti$_2$O$_7$ can now be regarded as a Coulomb phase with propagating bosonic spin excitations.<br />Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, supplementary information included
- Subjects :
- Condensed Matter - Strongly Correlated Electrons
Subjects
Details
- Database :
- arXiv
- Journal :
- Physical Review Letters 112, 017203 (2014)
- Publication Type :
- Report
- Accession number :
- edsarx.1305.5405
- Document Type :
- Working Paper
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.017203