Discovering Strongly Correlated Quantum Spin Liquid

TL;DR

This paper explores herbertsmithite as a strongly correlated quantum spin liquid with properties akin to heavy-fermion metals, revealing new insights into its thermodynamic and magnetic behaviors.

Contribution

It introduces herbertsmithite as a novel strongly correlated insulator exhibiting heavy-fermion-like properties due to a quantum spin liquid state with fermionic spinons.

Findings

Thermodynamic and relaxation properties match experimental data.

Scaling behavior resembles that of heavy-fermion metals.

Identification of at least two types of dynamic magnetic susceptibility scaling.

Abstract

Strongly correlated Fermi systems are among the most intriguing and fundamental systems in physics. We show that the herbertsmithite ZnCu3(OH)6Cl2 can be viewed as a new type of strongly correlated electrical insulator that possesses properties of heavy-fermion metals with one exception: it resists the flow of electric charge. We demonstrate that herbertsmithite's low temperature properties are defined by a strongly correlated quantum spin liquid made with such hypothetic particles as fermionic spinons which carry spin 1/2 and no charge. Our calculations of its thermodynamic and relaxation properties are in good agreement with recent experimental facts and allow us to reveal their scaling behavior which strongly resembles that observed in heavy-fermion metals. Analysis of the dynamic magnetic susceptibility of strongly correlated Fermi systems suggests that there exist at least two types of its scaling.