2019/02/11 by Liusuo Wu, L. S. Wu, S. E. Nikitin +23 · 1 citation
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Condensed Matter Physics #Anisotropy #Antiferromagnetism #Condensed matter physics #Electron #Heisenberg model #Luttinger liquid #Magnet #Magnetic and transport properties of perovskites and related materials #Phase (matter) #Phase diagram #Phase transition #Physics #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Quantum #Quantum fluctuation #Quantum mechanics #Quantum phase transition #Quantum spin liquid #Spin (aerodynamics) #Spin polarization #Spinon #cond-mat.str-el
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/s41467-019-08485-7
published as Nature Communications (2019) 10:698 · Main text: 25 pages, 7 figures; Supplementary Information: 11 pages, 8 figures
arxiv created 2019/02/11 · openalex publication_date 2019/02/11 · arxiv updated 2019/02/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
Abstract Low dimensional quantum magnets are interesting because of the emerging collective behavior arising from strong quantum fluctuations. The one-dimensional (1D) S = 1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet is a paradigmatic example, whose low-energy excitations, known as spinons, carry fractional spin S = 1/2. These fractional modes can be reconfined by the application of a staggered magnetic field. Even though considerable progress has been made in the theoretical understanding of such magnets, experimental realizations of this low-dimensional physics are relatively rare. This is particularly true for rare-earth-based magnets because of the large effective spin anisotropy induced by the combination of strong spin–orbit coupling and crystal field splitting. Here, we demonstrate that the rare-earth perovskite YbAlO 3 provides a realization of a quantum spin S = 1/2 chain material exhibiting both quantum critical Tomonaga–Luttinger liquid behavior and spinon confinement–deconfinement transitions in different regions of magnetic field–temperature phase diagram.