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arXiv · 1705.05381

Emergence of Chiral Spin Liquids via Quantum Melting of Non-Coplanar Magnetic Orders

Ciarán Hickey·Lukasz Cincio·Zlatko Papić·Arun Paramekanti
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Abstract

Quantum spin liquids (QSLs) are long-range entangled states of quantum magnets which lie beyond the Landau paradigm of classifying phases of matter via broken symmetries. A physical route to arriving at QSLs is via frustration-induced quantum melting of ordered states such as valence bond crystals or magnetic orders. Here, we show, using extensive exact diagonalization (ED) and density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG) studies of concrete $SU(2)$ invariant spin models on honeycomb, triangular and square lattices, that chiral spin liquids (CSLs) emerge as descendants of triple-$Q$ spin crystals with tetrahedral magnetic order and a large scalar spin chirality. Such ordered-to-CSL melting transitions may yield lattice realizations of effective Chern-Simons-Higgs field theories. Our work provides a distinct unifying perspective on the emergence of CSLs, and suggests that materials with magnetic skyrmion crystal order might provide a good starting point to search for CSLs.

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Ciarán Hickey, Lukasz Cincio, Zlatko Papić, Arun Paramekanti. 2017-05-15. Emergence of Chiral Spin Liquids via Quantum Melting of Non-Coplanar Magnetic Orders. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.96.115115

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