Using thermal boundary conditions to engineer the quantum state of a bulk magnet

Abstract

The degree of contact between a system and the external environment can alter dramatically its proclivity to quantum mechanical modes of relaxation. We show that controlling the thermal coupling of cubic centimeter-sized crystals of the Ising magnet $LiH{o}_x{Y}_{1-x}{F}_4$ to a heat bath can be used to tune the system between a glassy state dominated by thermal excitations over energy barriers and a state with the hallmarks of a quantum spin liquid. Application of a magnetic field transverse to the Ising axis introduces both random magnetic fields and quantum fluctuations, which can retard and speed the annealing process, respectively, thereby providing a mechanism for continuous tuning between the destination states. The non-linear response of the system explicitly demonstrates quantum interference between internal and external relaxation pathways.

23 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in PNAS

References in corpus (8)

• Quantum phase transition from a superfluid to a Mott insulator in a gas of ultracold atoms
• High-fidelity readout and control of a nuclear spin qubit in silicon
• Induced Random Fields in the LiHo${}_x$Y${}_{1-x}$F${}_4$ Quantum Ising Magnet in a Transverse Magnetic Field
• Ferromagnet in a continuously tuneable random field
• $\mathrm{LiH}{\mathrm{o}}_{\mathrm{x}}{\mathrm{Y}}_{1-\mathrm{x}}{\mathrm{F}}_4$ as a random field Ising ferromagnet
• Cross-relaxation and phonon bottleneck effects on magnetization dynamics in LiYF4:Ho3+
• Quantum Projection in an Ising Spin Liquid
• Spin dynamics in a dissipative environment: from quantal to classical

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• Probing many-body localization in a disordered quantum magnet
• Precise determination of low energy electronuclear Hamiltonian for LiY${}_{1-x}$Ho${}_x$F${}_4$
• Dynamical Quantum Phase Transitions in presence of a spin bath
• Non-equilibrium hysteresis and spin relaxation in the mixed-anisotropy dipolar coupled spin-glass LiHo${}_{0.5}$Er${}_{0.5}$F${}_4$
• Interplay of disorder and geometrical frustration in doped Gadolinium Gallium Garnet
• Quantum dynamics in strongly driven random dipolar magnets
• Quantum Entanglement Control in Two-Spin-1/2 NMR Systems Through Magnetic Fields and Temperature
• Thermodynamics of a Quantum Ising system coupled to a spin bath: Zero Temperature Results