Raman Circular Dichroism and Quantum Geometry of Chiral Quantum Spin Liquids

2025/03/18 by Koller, Eduard, Leeb, Valentin, Perkins, Natalia B. +1 · 4 citations
#FOS: Physical sciences #Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)

paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2503.14091

Abstract

We show that Raman circular dichroism (RCD) is a powerful probe of chiral quantum spin liquids (QSL) governed by the topology of fractionalized spin excitations. Starting from the Loudon-Fleury formalism of Mott insulators, we compute the RCD and demonstrate that it is identical to the result obtained from a direct light-matter coupling to effective spinon bands. The RCD signal originates from contributions of Berry curvature and quantum metric. To illustrate this, we apply our approach to two examples - the Kitaev honeycomb model in a magnetic field and a chiral U(1) QSL on the triangular lattice - and discuss its experimental relevance for candidate materials.

Cited by

• Generation of chirality and orbital magnetization by Stone-Wales-type lattice defects in the Kitaev spin liquid
• Chiral spin liquid instability of the Kitaev honeycomb model with crystallographic defects
• Spin-lattice coupling induced chiral phonons and their signature in Raman Circular Dichroism
• Raman spectroscopy of anyons in generic Kitaev spin liquids

Related

• Spin-lattice coupling induced chiral phonons and their signature in Raman Circular Dichroism
• Direct Raman observation of the quantum metric in a quantum magnet
• Detection of chiral spin fluctuations driven by frustration in Mott insulators
• Structural Sensitivity without Chirality: Observation of Magnetic Raman Optical Activity outside Resonance
• Transitions Between Chiral Spin Liquids and Z2 Spin Liquids