Superconductivity in the doped quantum spin liquid on the triangular lattice

TL;DR

This study uses large-scale simulations to show that doping a quantum spin liquid on a triangular lattice can naturally induce robust superconductivity, highlighting a potential pathway for realizing high-temperature superconductors.

Contribution

It provides the first large-scale numerical evidence that doping a quantum spin liquid can lead to dominant superconducting correlations on a triangular lattice.

Findings

Superconducting correlations are dominant at all doping levels studied.

The ground state resembles a Luther-Emery liquid with coexisting charge-density-wave correlations.

Doping a QSL can naturally produce robust superconductivity.

Abstract

Broad interest in quantum spin liquid (QSL) phases was triggered by the notion that they can be viewed as insulating phases with preexisting electron-pairs, such that upon light doping they might automatically yield superconductivity. Yet despite intense efforts, definitive evidence is lacking. We address the problem of a lightly doped QSL through a large-scale density-matrix renormalization group study of the $t$-$J$ model on the triangular lattice with a small but non-zero concentration of doped holes. The ground state is consistent with a Luther-Emery liquid with power-law superconducting and charge-density-wave correlations associated with partially-filled charge stripes. In particular, the superconducting correlations are dominant on both four-leg and six-leg cylinders at all hole doping concentrations. Our results provide direct evidences that doping a QSL can naturally lead to robust superconductivity.