Mario Halim

Slater to Mott Crossover in the Metal to Insulator Transition of Nd 2 Ir 2 O 7

We present an angle-resolved photoemission study of the electronic structure of the three-dimensional pyrochlore iridate Nd_{2}Ir_{2}O_{7} through its magnetic metal-insulator transition. Our data reveal that metallic Nd_{2}Ir_{2}O_{7} has a quadratic band, touching the Fermi level at the Γ point, similar to that of Pr_{2}Ir_{2}O_{7}. The Fermi node state is, therefore, a common feature of the metallic phase of the pyrochlore iridates. Upon cooling below the transition temperature, this compound exhibits a gap opening with an energy shift of quasiparticle peaks like a band gap insulator. The quasiparticle peaks are strongly suppressed, however, with further decrease of temperature, and eventually vanish at the lowest temperature, leaving a nondispersive flat band lacking long-lived electrons. We thereby identify a remarkable crossover from Slater to Mott insulators with decreasing temperature. These observations explain the puzzling absence of Weyl points in this material, despite its proximity to the zero temperature metal-insulator transition.

Absence of Jahn−Teller transition in the hexagonal Ba3CuSb2O9 single crystal

Significance The quantum spin liquid state has been intensively pursued since Anderson proposed the resonating valence bond model. On the other hand, quantum liquids based on another electronic degree of freedom, orbital, has been believed unrealistic, because the energy scale of orbital correlation is normally one order of magnitude higher than spin exchange coupling, resulting in an orbital ordering at a signicantly high temperature accompanied by a cooperative Jahn−Teller (JT) distortion. In this paper, we present striking complete suppression of the JT transition in the copper oxide, 6H-Ba3 CuSb2O9 based on comprehensive structural studies, indicating the realization of the novel “spin–orbital liquid” state. With decreasing temperature, liquids generally freeze into a solid state, losing entropy in the process. However, exceptions to this trend exist, such as quantum liquids, which may remain unfrozen down to absolute zero owing to strong quantum entanglement effects that stabilize a disordered state with zero entropy. Examples of such liquids include Bose−Einstein condensation of cold atoms, superconductivity, quantum Hall state of electron systems, and quantum spin liquid state in the frustrated magnets. Moreover, recent studies have clarified the possibility of another exotic quantum liquid state based on the spin–orbital entanglement in FeSc2S4. To confirm this exotic ground state, experiments based on single-crystalline samples are essential. However, no such single-crystal study has been reported to date. Here, we report, to our knowledge, the first single-crystal study on the spin–orbital liquid candidate, 6H-Ba3CuSb2O9, and we have confirmed the absence of an orbital frozen state. In strongly correlated electron systems, orbital ordering usually appears at high temperatures in a process accompanied by a lattice deformation, called a static Jahn−Teller distortion. By combining synchrotron X-ray diffraction, electron spin resonance, Raman spectroscopy, and ultrasound measurements, we find that the static Jahn−Teller distortion is absent in the present material, which indicates that orbital ordering is suppressed down to the lowest temperatures measured. We discuss how such an unusual feature is realized with the help of spin degree of freedom, leading to a spin–orbital entangled quantum liquid state.

Observation of the orbital quantum dynamics in the spin- 1 2 hexagonal antiferromagnet B a 3 CuS b 2 O 9

We explore orbital dynamics in the spin liquid candidate Ba3CuSb2O9 using multi-frequency electron spin resonance. We prepared two high quality single crystals. The crystal with a slight copper deficiency shows a structural phase transition at around 200 K due to the cooperative Jahn-Teller effect, accompanied with orbital ordering. In contrast, the crystal with almost perfect stoichiometry shows no orbital ordering down to the lowest temperature of 1.5 K. Dramatic change in the g-factor anisotropy as a function of frequency and temperature demonstrates orbital quantum fluctuations at a nearly constant time scale of ~ 100 ps below 20 K, evidencing the emergence of an orbital liquid state in this quantum spin liquid compound.

Discovery of Emergent Photon and Monopoles in a Quantum Spin Liquid

Quantum spin liquid (QSL) is an exotic quantum phase of matter whose ground state is quantum-mechanically entangled without any magnetic ordering. A central issue concerns emergent excitations that characterize QSLs, which are hypothetically associated with quasiparticle fractionalization and topological order. Here we report highly unusual heat conduction generated by the spin degrees of freedom in a QSL state of the pyrochlore magnet Pr

Spin-Orbital Entangled Liquid State in the Copper Oxide Ba

_2

_3

Zr

CuSb

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_2

O

O

_7

_9

, which hosts spin-ice correlations with strong quantum fluctuations. The thermal conductivity in high temperature regime exhibits a two-gap behavior, which is consistent with the gapped excitations of magnetic (