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Title | Spin-induced optical conductivity in the spin-liquid candidate herbertsmithite. |
Publication Type | Journal Article |
Year of Publication | 2013 |
Authors | DV Pilon, CH Lui, T-H Han, D Shrekenhamer, AJ Frenzel, WJ Padilla, YS Lee, and N Gedik |
Journal | Physical review letters |
Volume | 111 |
Issue | 12 |
Start Page | 127401 |
Date Published | 09/2013 |
Abstract | We report a direct measurement of the low-frequency optical conductivity of large-area single-crystal herbertsmithite, a promising spin-liquid candidate material, by means of terahertz time-domain spectroscopy. In the spectral range below 1.4 THz, we observe a contribution to the real part of the in-plane conductivity σ(ab)(ω) from the spin degree of freedom. This spin-induced conductivity exhibits a power-law dependence on frequency σ(ab)(ω) ~ ω(β) with β ≈ 1.4. Our observation is consistent with the theoretically predicted low-frequency conductivity arising from an emergent gauge field of a gapless U(1) Dirac spin liquid. |
DOI | 10.1103/physrevlett.111.127401 |
Short Title | Physical review letters |