Cyclotron reonance in a kagome spin liquid candidate material

TL;DR

This paper proposes using cyclotron resonance as an optical method to detect fractionalized excitations in quantum spin liquids, specifically in kagome antiferromagnets, by analyzing how external electromagnetic fields induce emergent gauge fields affecting spinons.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to probe spinons in quantum spin liquids via cyclotron resonance, accounting for indirect coupling mechanisms through emergent gauge fields.

Findings

Absorption rate of cyclotron resonance computed for Dirac spinons.

Cumulative absorption comparable to graphene in realistic samples.

Cyclotron resonance can serve as an experimental signature of spinon Landau levels.

Abstract

We propose cyclotron resonance as an optical probe for emergent fractionalized excitations in $\mathrm{U}(1)$ quantum spin liquids, focusing on kagome antiferromagnets. In contrast to conventional systems, where cyclotron resonance directly couples to charged carriers, spinons in spin liquids are charge-neutral and interact only through an emergent gauge field. We identify two key mechanisms by which an external physical electromagnetic field induces emergent electric and magnetic fields, enabling indirect coupling to spinons. Using these mechanisms, we compute the absorption rate of the cyclotron resonance response for Dirac spinons forming Landau levels. Our analysis shows that, although the absorption per layer is small, the absence of a skin-depth limitation in insulating spin liquids allows for cumulative absorption comparable to graphene in realistic sample sizes for the recently discovered spin-liquid candidate material YCu${}_3$(OH)${}_6$Br${}_2$[Br${}_{1-y}$(OH)${}_y$]. Our findings shows that cyclotron resonance is a viable experimental probe of spinon Landau quantization and emergent gauge fields, providing powerful positive experimental signatures of quantum spin liquids.