Using magnetic dynamics to measure the spin gap in a candidate Kitaev material
Spin-orbit entangled materials have attracted widespread interest due to the novel magnetic phenomena arising from the interplay between spin-orbit coupling and electronic correlations. However, the intricate nature of spin interactions within Kiteav materials complicates the precise measurement of low-energy spin excitations. Using Na2Co2TeO6 as an example, we study these low-energy spin excitations using the time-resolved resonant elastic x-ray scattering (tr-REXS). Our observations unveil remarkably slow spin dynamics at the magnetic peak, whose recovery timescale is several nanoseconds. This timescale aligns with the extrapolated spin gap of ~1 μeV, obtained by density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) simulations in the thermodynamic limit. The consistency demonstrates the efficacy of tr-REXS in discerning low-energy spin gaps inaccessible to conventional spectroscopic techniques.
Authors
- Nanlin Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2584-9265)
- Hyeong‐Do Kim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9083-6519)
- Y. Y. Peng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2657-3590)
- Sang‐Youn Park (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1500-4384)
- Xianghong Jin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3140-5521)
- Li Yue (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1134-4859)
- Joshua J. Turner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2106-7955)
- Qingzheng Qiu
- Byungjune Lee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0785-030X)
- Qizhi Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0085-5095)
- Xinqiang Cai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6259-4260)
- Hoyoung Jang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7160-9038)
- Yuan Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2747-0649)
- Wenjie Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9723-7308)
- Xinyi Jiang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0074-6876)
- Yao Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1736-0187)
- Minseok Kim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2504-1314)
- Tao Dong
- Peng Cheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9267-1789)
Institutions
- Pohang University of Science and Technology (KR)
- Emory University (US)
- Peking University (CN)
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (US)
- Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter (CN)
- Linac Coherent Light Source (US)
- Korea Foundation for Max Planck POSTECH (KR)
Publication Details
- Journal
- npj Quantum Materials
- Published
- 2025-02-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41535-025-00737-8
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Advanced Condensed Matter Physics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.26
Funders
- U.S. Department of Energy
- National Research Foundation
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Pohang University of Science and Technology
- National Research Foundation of Korea
- Ministry of Science and ICT, South Korea
- Office of Science
- Basic Energy Sciences