Optical conductivity and surface plasmon modes of U(1) spin liquid states with large spinon Fermi surfaces

Abstract

In this paper we study the optical properties of $U(1)$ spin liquids with large spinon Fermi surfaces based on a simple formula for the bulk optical conductivity obtained through the Ioffe-Larkin composition rule. We show that the optical conductivity of $U(1)$ spin liquids at energies above the charge gap has a unique feature that distinguishes them from ordinary insulators. In particular we show the existence of a long-life surface plasmon mode propagating along the interface between a linear medium and the spin liquid at frequencies above the charge gap, which can be detected by the widely used Kretschmann-Raether three-layer configuration.

4.5 pages, 4 figures

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Cited by in corpus (1)

• $\mu$SR evidence for the U(1) quantum spin liquid ground state in the triangular antiferromagnet YbMgGaO${}_4$