Phonon Dynamics in the Generalized Kitaev Spin Liquid

Abstract

Candidate materials for the Kitaev spin liquid generically have residual interactions beyond the Kitaev coupling. It therefore becomes necessary to understand how signatures of the quantum spin liquid, e.g., fractionalization of the spin excitations, are affected by the presence of these interactions. Recently it was shown that phonon dynamics is an indirect but effective probe to study fractionalized excitations in the Kitaev spin liquid. Ultrasound experiments can measure sound attenuation, which should show characteristic temperature and angular dependence of the sound attenuation coefficient if the scattering of phonons happens predominantly on Majorana fermions. So far the computation of the sound attenuation was only done in the pure spin-phonon coupled Kitaev model, without taking into account residual interactions. In order to understand experimental signatures, here we present a mean-field study of the sound attenuation in the generalized $J$-$K$-$\Gamma$ model, which is relevant to candidate materials. Our findings show that as long as the system is in the spin liquid phase, characteristic features of the sound attenuation remain observable even in the presence of residual interactions.

15 pages, 7 figures

References in corpus (18)

• Mott Insulators in the Strong Spin-Orbit Coupling Limit: From Heisenberg to a Quantum Compass and Kitaev Models
• $\alpha$-RuCl3: a Spin-Orbit Assisted Mott Insulator on a Honeycomb Lattice
• Models and Materials for Generalized Kitaev Magnetism
• On the Origin of Zigzag Magnetic Order in Iridium Oxide Na2IrO3
• Scattering Continuum and Possible Fractionalized Excitations in $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$
• Magnetic order in $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$: a honeycomb lattice quantum magnet with strong spin-orbit coupling
• Long range magnetic ordering in Na${}_2$IrO${}_3$
• Successive magnetic phase transitions in $\mathbf{\alpha }$-RuCl${}_3$: XY-like frustrated magnet on the honeycomb lattice
• Spin-wave excitations evidencing the Kitaev interaction in single crystalline $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$
• Na2IrO3 as a spin-orbit-assisted antiferromagnetic insulator with a 340 meV gap
• Anisotropic Ru3+ 4d5 magnetism in the alpha-RuCl3 honeycomb system: susceptibility, specific heat and Zero field NMR
• Vaporization of Kitaev spin liquids
• Raman Scattering Signatures of Kitaev Spin Liquids in A${}_2$ IrO${}_3$ Iridates
• Importance of anisotropic exchange interactions in honeycomb iridates. Minimal model for zigzag antiferromagnetic order in Na${}_2$IrO${}_3$
• Theory of the field-revealed Kitaev spin liquid
• Phase diagram and spin correlations of the Kitaev-Heisenberg model: Importance of quantum effects
• Probing the stability of the spin liquid phases in the Kitaev-Heisenberg model using tensor network algorithms
• Probing spinon nodal structures in three-dimensional Kitaev spin liquids

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Spin-phonon interactions on the kagome lattice: Dirac spin liquid versus valence-bond solids
• Phonon Dynamics in the Chiral Kitaev Spin Liquid
• Real-time control of non-Abelian anyons in Kitaev spin liquid under energy dissipation
• Signatures of fractionalization in the optical phonons of hyperhoneycomb Kitaev magnet $\beta$-Li${}_2$IrO${}_3$
• Magnetostriction in the $J$-$K$-$\Gamma$ model: Application of the numerical linked cluster expansion
• Spin-phonon coupling and thermal Hall effect in the Kitaev model