Strain-induced quantum oscillation in Kitaev spin liquid with Majorana-Fermi surface

TL;DR

This paper theoretically demonstrates that applying lattice strain to a Kitaev spin liquid induces Landau quantization of Majorana fermions, leading to observable quantum oscillations in physical properties, providing a new way to probe Majorana Fermi surfaces.

Contribution

It introduces a method to induce and detect Landau levels of Majorana fermions via strain in Kitaev materials, revealing quantum oscillations as a signature of Majorana Fermi surfaces.

Findings

Strain creates an effective vector potential for Majorana fermions.

Landau levels form in the low-energy spectrum under strain.

Quantum oscillations in density of states and specific heat are observed.

Abstract

We theoretically study Landau quantization of itinerant Majorana quasiparticles induced by lattice strain in a Kitaev spin liquid with Majorana Fermi surfaces. We consider the isotropic spin-1/2 Kitaev model on the honeycomb lattice with a perturbation such as a staggered Zeeman field and an electromagnetic field, which generates small Majorana Fermi surfaces near the Dirac points. By introducing triaxial strain, we create an effective vector potential that couples to Majorana fermions and leads to Landau quantization. Our calculations show that the low-energy spectrum forms discrete pseudo-Landau levels of the Majorana Fermi surface. We further demonstrate that the strain-induced effective vector potential gives rise to pronounced quantum oscillations of the density of states and the specific heat at very low temperatures, in close analogy to the de Haas-van Alphen effect for charged electrons in metals. These results indicate that Landau-quantization-driven "Majorana quantum oscillations" can serve as a probe of the charge-neutral Majorana Fermi surface in Kitaev materials.