Multiple fermion scattering in the weakly coupled spin-chain compound YbAlO3

S. E. Nikitin; S. Nishimoto; Y. Fan; J. Wu; L. S. Wu; A. S. Sukhanov; M. Brando; N. S. Pavlovskii; J. Xu; L. Vasylechko; R. Yu; A. Podlesnyak

doi:10.1038/s41467-021-23585-z

Multiple fermion scattering in the weakly coupled spin-chain compound YbAlO₃

S. E. Nikitin, S. Nishimoto, Y. Fan, J. Wu, L. S. Wu, A. S. Sukhanov, M. Brando, N. S. Pavlovskii, J. Xu, L. Vasylechko, R. Yu, A. Podlesnyak

Direct Geometry

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

16 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Heisenberg antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 chain, originally introduced almost a century ago, is one of the best studied models in quantum mechanics due to its exact solution, but nevertheless it continues to present new discoveries. Its low-energy physics is described by the Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid of spinless fermions, similar to the conduction electrons in one-dimensional metals. In this work we investigate the Heisenberg spin-chain compound YbAlO₃ and show that the weak interchain coupling causes Umklapp scattering between the left- and right-moving fermions and stabilizes an incommensurate spin-density wave order at q = 2k_F under finite magnetic fields. These Umklapp processes open a route to multiple coherent scattering of fermions, which results in the formation of satellites at integer multiples of the incommensurate fundamental wavevector Q = nq. Our work provides surprising and profound insight into bandstructure control for emergent fermions in quantum materials, and shows how neutron diffraction can be applied to investigate the phenomenon of coherent multiple scattering in metals through the proxy of quantum magnetic systems.

Original language	English
Article number	3599
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	12
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-23585-z
State	Published - Dec 1 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).

Funding

We acknowledge C.D. Batista for fruitful discussions, U. Nitzsche for technical assistance, P.Y. Portnichenko for help with the neutron-scattering experiment, and B. Normand for insightful suggestions and careful proofreading of the manuscript. This research used resources at the Spallation Neutron Source, a DOE Office of Science User Facility operated by Oak Ridge National Laboratory. S.N. acknowledges support by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft through SFB 1143 project no. A05. S.E.N. and A.S.S. acknowledge support from the International Max Planck Research School for Chemistry and Physics of Quantum Materials (IMPRS-CPQM). The work at Renmin University was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, National Program on Key Research Project (grant number 2016YFA0300504), the National Science Foundation of China (grant number 11674392), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities and the Research Funds of Renmin University of China (grant number 18XNLG24). J.W. acknowledges additional support from a Shanghai talent program. The work at Shanghai Jiao Tong University is sponsored by the Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai with grant no. 20ZR1428400 and Shanghai Pujiang Program with grant no. 20PJ1408100 (J.W).

Funders	Funder number
Shanghai Pujiang Program	20PJ1408100
Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai	20ZR1428400
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft	SFB 1143
National Natural Science Foundation of China	11674392
Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China
Renmin University of China	18XNLG24
Shanghai Jiao Tong University
National Key Research and Development Program of China	2016YFA0300504
Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
International Max Planck Research School for Chemistry and Physics of Quantum Materials

Access to Document

10.1038/s41467-021-23585-z

Cite this

@article{d10a87e2a5ba4a8bb29ce61fefe6fc68,

title = "Multiple fermion scattering in the weakly coupled spin-chain compound YbAlO3",

abstract = "The Heisenberg antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 chain, originally introduced almost a century ago, is one of the best studied models in quantum mechanics due to its exact solution, but nevertheless it continues to present new discoveries. Its low-energy physics is described by the Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid of spinless fermions, similar to the conduction electrons in one-dimensional metals. In this work we investigate the Heisenberg spin-chain compound YbAlO3 and show that the weak interchain coupling causes Umklapp scattering between the left- and right-moving fermions and stabilizes an incommensurate spin-density wave order at q = 2kF under finite magnetic fields. These Umklapp processes open a route to multiple coherent scattering of fermions, which results in the formation of satellites at integer multiples of the incommensurate fundamental wavevector Q = nq. Our work provides surprising and profound insight into bandstructure control for emergent fermions in quantum materials, and shows how neutron diffraction can be applied to investigate the phenomenon of coherent multiple scattering in metals through the proxy of quantum magnetic systems.",

author = "Nikitin, {S. E.} and S. Nishimoto and Y. Fan and J. Wu and Wu, {L. S.} and Sukhanov, {A. S.} and M. Brando and Pavlovskii, {N. S.} and J. Xu and L. Vasylechko and R. Yu and A. Podlesnyak",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021, The Author(s).",

year = "2021",

month = dec,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1038/s41467-021-23585-z",

language = "English",

volume = "12",

journal = "Nature Communications",

issn = "2041-1723",

publisher = "Nature Research",

number = "1",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Multiple fermion scattering in the weakly coupled spin-chain compound YbAlO3

AU - Nikitin, S. E.

AU - Nishimoto, S.

AU - Fan, Y.

AU - Wu, J.

AU - Wu, L. S.

AU - Sukhanov, A. S.

AU - Brando, M.

AU - Pavlovskii, N. S.

AU - Xu, J.

AU - Vasylechko, L.

AU - Yu, R.

AU - Podlesnyak, A.

PY - 2021/12/1

Y1 - 2021/12/1

N2 - The Heisenberg antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 chain, originally introduced almost a century ago, is one of the best studied models in quantum mechanics due to its exact solution, but nevertheless it continues to present new discoveries. Its low-energy physics is described by the Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid of spinless fermions, similar to the conduction electrons in one-dimensional metals. In this work we investigate the Heisenberg spin-chain compound YbAlO3 and show that the weak interchain coupling causes Umklapp scattering between the left- and right-moving fermions and stabilizes an incommensurate spin-density wave order at q = 2kF under finite magnetic fields. These Umklapp processes open a route to multiple coherent scattering of fermions, which results in the formation of satellites at integer multiples of the incommensurate fundamental wavevector Q = nq. Our work provides surprising and profound insight into bandstructure control for emergent fermions in quantum materials, and shows how neutron diffraction can be applied to investigate the phenomenon of coherent multiple scattering in metals through the proxy of quantum magnetic systems.

AB - The Heisenberg antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 chain, originally introduced almost a century ago, is one of the best studied models in quantum mechanics due to its exact solution, but nevertheless it continues to present new discoveries. Its low-energy physics is described by the Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid of spinless fermions, similar to the conduction electrons in one-dimensional metals. In this work we investigate the Heisenberg spin-chain compound YbAlO3 and show that the weak interchain coupling causes Umklapp scattering between the left- and right-moving fermions and stabilizes an incommensurate spin-density wave order at q = 2kF under finite magnetic fields. These Umklapp processes open a route to multiple coherent scattering of fermions, which results in the formation of satellites at integer multiples of the incommensurate fundamental wavevector Q = nq. Our work provides surprising and profound insight into bandstructure control for emergent fermions in quantum materials, and shows how neutron diffraction can be applied to investigate the phenomenon of coherent multiple scattering in metals through the proxy of quantum magnetic systems.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85107908042&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1038/s41467-021-23585-z

DO - 10.1038/s41467-021-23585-z

M3 - Article

C2 - 34127661

AN - SCOPUS:85107908042

SN - 2041-1723

VL - 12

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

IS - 1

M1 - 3599

ER -