Multiple fermion scattering in the weakly coupled spin-chain compound YbAlO3

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • S. E. Nikitin - , Chair of Neutron Spectroscopy of Condensed Matter, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, TUD Dresden University of Technology, Paul Scherrer Institute (Author)
  • S. Nishimoto - , Chair of Experimental Solid State Physics, TUD Dresden University of Technology, Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden (Author)
  • Y. Fan - , Renmin University of China, CAS - Institute of Physics, Technical University of Munich (Author)
  • J. Wu - , Shanghai Jiao Tong University (Author)
  • L. S. Wu - , Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Southern University of Science and Technology (Author)
  • A. S. Sukhanov - , Chair of Neutron Spectroscopy of Condensed Matter, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, TUD Dresden University of Technology (Author)
  • M. Brando - , Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids (Author)
  • N. S. Pavlovskii - , RAS - Kirensky Institute of Physics, Siberian Branch (Author)
  • J. Xu - , Helmholtz Centre Berlin for Materials and Energy, CAS - Institute of Physics, Technical University of Munich (Author)
  • L. Vasylechko - , Lviv Polytechnic National University (Author)
  • R. Yu - , Renmin University of China (Author)
  • A. Podlesnyak - , Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Author)

Abstract

The Heisenberg antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 chain, originally introduced almost a century ago, is one of the best studied models in quantum mechanics due to its exact solution, but nevertheless it continues to present new discoveries. Its low-energy physics is described by the Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid of spinless fermions, similar to the conduction electrons in one-dimensional metals. In this work we investigate the Heisenberg spin-chain compound YbAlO3 and show that the weak interchain coupling causes Umklapp scattering between the left- and right-moving fermions and stabilizes an incommensurate spin-density wave order at q = 2kF under finite magnetic fields. These Umklapp processes open a route to multiple coherent scattering of fermions, which results in the formation of satellites at integer multiples of the incommensurate fundamental wavevector Q = nq. Our work provides surprising and profound insight into bandstructure control for emergent fermions in quantum materials, and shows how neutron diffraction can be applied to investigate the phenomenon of coherent multiple scattering in metals through the proxy of quantum magnetic systems.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number3599
JournalNature communications
Volume12
Issue number1
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2021
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

PubMed 34127661