CPM Seminar

Probing 3D Kitaev spin liquid states with Raman scattering

Fiona Burnell

University of Minnesota

Definitive experimental signatures of quantum spin liquid states can be challenging to identify: though several qualitative signatures exist, these typically are not sufficient to rule out other, more conventional low-temperature physics. I will discuss why Raman scattering is a particularly promising probe to perform quantitative comparisons between theory and experiment in situations where local magnetic moments couple through exchange interactions with strong spin-orbit coupling, which can lead to spin Hamiltonians with a dominant “Kitaev-type” interaction. In the context of a family of 3D materials with this property, I will review the potentially distinctive signatures of this type of spin-liquid physics.