2017/03/27 by Li Ern Chern, Robert Schaffer, Sopheak Sorn +1
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Condensed Matter Physics #Antiferromagnetism #Condensed matter physics #Electron #Fermi liquid theory #Fermi surface #Ground state #Paramagnetism #Physics #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Quantum mechanics #Quantum spin liquid #Spin (aerodynamics) #Spin polarization #Spinon #Superconductivity #Topological Materials and Phenomena #cond-mat.str-el
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.96.165117
published as Phys. Rev. B 96, 165117 (2017) · 16 pages, 8 figures, 3 tables
arxiv created 2017/03/27 · openalex publication_date 2017/10/10 · arxiv updated 2017/10/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Recently, thermal Hall effect has been observed in the paramagnetic state of volborthite, which consists of distorted kagome layers with S=1/2 local moments. Despite the appearance of magnetic order below 1\phantom\rule0.28em0exK, the response to external magnetic field and unusual properties of the paramagnetic state above 1\phantom\rule0.28em0exK suggest possible realization of exotic quantum phases. Motivated by these discoveries, we investigate possible spin liquid phases with fermionic spinon excitations in a nonsymmorphic version of the kagome lattice, which belongs to the two-dimensional crystallographic group p2gg. This nonsymmorphic structure is consistent with the spin model obtained in the density functional theory calculation. Using projective symmetry group analysis and fermionic parton mean field theory, we identify twelve distinct ℤ2 spin liquid states, four of which are found to have correspondence in the eight Schwinger boson spin liquid states we classified earlier. We focus on the four fermionic states with bosonic counterpart and find that the spectrum of their corresponding root U(1) states features spinon Fermi surface. The existence of spinon Fermi surface in candidate spin liquid states may offer a possible explanation of the finite thermal Hall conductivity observed in volborthite.