Heat Transport in Herbertsmithite: Can a Quantum Spin Liquid Survive Disorder?

Abstract

Arguably the most favorable situation for spins to enter the long-sought quantum spin liquid (QSL) state is when they sit on a kagome lattice. No consensus has been reached in theory regarding the true ground state of this promising platform. The experimental efforts, relying mostly on one archetypal material ZnCu${}_3$(OH)${}_6$Cl${}_2$, have also led to diverse possibilities. Apart from subtle interactions in the Hamiltonian, there is the additional degree of complexity associated with disorder in the real material ZnCu${}_3$(OH)${}_6$Cl${}_2$ that haunts most experimental probes. Here we resort to heat transport measurement, a cleaner probe in which instead of contributing directly, the disorder only impacts the signal from the kagome spins. For ZnCu${}_3$(OH)${}_6$Cl${}_2$ and a related QSL candidate Cu${}_3$Zn(OH)${}_6$FBr, we observed no contribution by any spin excitation nor any field-induced change to the thermal conductivity. These results impose different constraints on various scenarios about the ground state of these two kagome compounds: while a gapped QSL, or certain quantum paramagnetic state other than a QSL, is compatible with our results, a gapless QSL must be dramatically modified by the disorder so that gapless spin excitations are localized.

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Cited by in corpus (20)

• Possible Dirac quantum spin liquid in a kagome quantum antiferromagnet YCu${}_3$(OH)${}_6$Br${}_2$[Br${}_x$(OH)${}_{1-x}$]
• Heat transport of the kagomé Heisenberg quantum spin liquid candidate YCu${}_3$(OH)${}_{6.5}$Br${}_{2.5}$: localized magnetic excitations and spin gap
• Kitaev Quantum Spin Liquids
• The observation of quantum fluctuations in a kagome Heisenberg antiferromagnet
• Freezing of the Lattice in the Kagome Lattice Heisenberg Antiferromagnet Zn-barlowite ZnCu${}_3$(OD)${}_6$FBr
• Magnetic ground states in kagome YCu${}_3$(OH)${}_6$[(Cl${}_x$Br${}_{1-x}$)${}_{3-y}$(OH)${}_y$]
• Emergence of the spin polarized domains in the kagome lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnet Zn-barlowite (Zn${}_{0.95}$Cu${}_{0.05}$)Cu${}_3$(OD)${}_6$FBr
• Heat conduction in herbertsmithite: field dependence at the onset of the quantum spin liquid regime
• NMR evidence of spinon localization in kagome antiferromagnet YCu${}_3$(OH)${}_6$Br${}_2$[Br${}_{1-x}$(OH)${}_x$]
• Frustrations on decorated planar lattices in Ising model
• Thermodynamic evidence of fermionic behavior in the vicinity of one-ninth plateau in a kagome antiferromagnet
• Spontaneous magnetization of Kagome lattice in Ising model
• Frustrations on decorated triangular lattice in Ising model
• Magnetically disordered ground state in the triangular-lattice antiferromagnets Rb${}_3$Yb(VO${}_4$)${}_2$ and Cs${}_3$Yb(VO${}_4$)${}_2$
• Spin excitations arising from anisotropic Dirac spinons in YCu${}_3$(OD)${}_6$Br${}_2$[Br${}_{0.33}$(OD)${}_{0.67}$]
• Itinerant and topological excitations in a honeycomb spiral spin liquid candidate
• Disorder-induced spin excitation continuum and spin-glass ground state in the inverse spinel CuGa${}_2$O${}_4$
• Random singlet physics in exchange disordered 2D triangular YbCu${}_{1.14}$Se${}_2$
• Spinon mediation of witness spin dynamics in herbertsmithite
• Spin Liquid Mimicry in the Hydroxide Double Perovskite CuSn(OH)${}_6$ Induced by Correlated Proton Disorder