Observation of Pines' Demon in Sr${}_2$RuO${}_4$

Abstract

The characteristic excitation of a metal is its plasmon, which is a quantized collective oscillation of its electron density. In 1956, David Pines predicted that a distinct type of plasmon, dubbed a "demon," could exist in three-dimensional metals containing more than one species of charge carrier. Consisting of out-of-phase movement of electrons in different bands, demons are acoustic, electrically neutral, and do not couple to light, so have never been detected in an equilibrium, three-dimensional metal. Nevertheless, demons are believed to be critical for diverse phenomena including phase transitions in mixed-valence semimetals, optical properties of metal nanoparticles, "soundarons" in Weyl semimetals, and high temperature superconductivity in, for example, metal hydrides. Here, we present evidence for a demon in Sr${}_2$RuO${}_4$ from momentum-resolved electron energy-loss spectroscopy (M-EELS). Formed of electrons in the $\beta$ and $\gamma$ bands, the demon is gapless with a room temperature velocity $v=1.065\pm 0.12\times 10^5$ m/s and critical momentum $q_c=0.08$ reciprocal lattice units. Its spectral weight violates low-energy partial sum rules, affirming its neutral character. Our study confirms a 66-year old prediction and suggests that demons may be a pervasive feature of multiband metals.

14 pages, 4 figures ; Revised to include a complete analysis of the gapless collective mode

Cited by in corpus (1)

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