Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 29, 2025
10:35
Novel Techniques for Observing Structural Dynamics of Photoresponsive Liquid Crystals
Published on: May 29, 2018
8.8K
Amorphous and Polycrystalline Routes toward a Chiral Spin Liquid
Adolfo G Grushin1, Cécile Repellin2
1Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Grenoble INP, Institut Néel, 38000 Grenoble, France.
Physical Review Letters
|May 19, 2023
Summary
Chiral spin liquids emerge in non-crystalline Kitaev materials by breaking time-reversal symmetry. This mechanism creates a stable energy gap, enabling chiral spin liquids without magnetic fields.
Area of Science:
- Condensed Matter Physics
- Quantum Materials
- Spintronics
Background:
- Kitaev materials are theoretical models exhibiting exotic quantum states.
- Chiral spin liquids are a type of quantum spin liquid with broken time-reversal symmetry.
- Non-crystalline materials like amorphous, polycrystalline, or irradiated solids present unique physical properties.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the spontaneous emergence of chiral spin liquids in non-crystalline Kitaev materials.
- To identify the mechanism responsible for breaking time-reversal symmetry in these systems.
- To determine the stability and characteristics of the emergent chiral spin liquid state.
Main Methods:
- Theoretical modeling of Kitaev materials with non-crystalline structures.
- Analysis of plaquette configurations and their contribution to symmetry breaking.
- Exact diagonalization techniques to study the emergent spin liquid state.
- Investigation of the impact of Heisenberg interactions on stability.
Main Results:
- A chiral spin liquid spontaneously emerges in partially amorphous, polycrystalline, or ion-irradiated Kitaev materials.
- Time-reversal symmetry is broken due to a nonzero density of odd-edged plaquettes (n_odd).
- A sizable energy gap opens, proportional to n_odd and saturating around 40%, stable against Heisenberg interactions.
Conclusions:
- Non-crystalline structures provide a viable platform for realizing chiral spin liquids without external magnetic fields.
- The density of odd-edged plaquettes is a key factor in stabilizing the chiral spin liquid state.
- This work expands the range of materials and conditions under which chiral spin liquids can be observed.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
01:21Polymer Classification: Crystallinity
2.9K
Unlike ionic or small covalent molecules, polymers do not form crystalline solids due to the diffusion limitations of their long-chain structures. However, polymers contain microscopic crystalline domains separated by amorphous domains.
Crystalline domains are the regions where polymer chains are aligned in an orderly manner and held together in proximity by intermolecular forces. For example, chains in the crystalline domains of polyethylene and nylon are bound together by van der Waals...
Crystalline domains are the regions where polymer chains are aligned in an orderly manner and held together in proximity by intermolecular forces. For example, chains in the crystalline domains of polyethylene and nylon are bound together by van der Waals...
2.9K
02:25Chirality
24.4K
Chirality is a term that describes the lack of mirror symmetry in an object. In other words, chiral objects cannot be superposed on their mirror images. For example, our feet are chiral, as the mirror image of the left foot, the right foot, cannot be superposed on the left foot.
Chiral objects exhibit a sense of handedness when they interact with another chiral object. For example, our left foot can only fit in the left shoe and not in the right shoe. Achiral objects — objects that have...
Chiral objects exhibit a sense of handedness when they interact with another chiral object. For example, our left foot can only fit in the left shoe and not in the right shoe. Achiral objects — objects that have...
24.4K
02:05Prochirality
3.8K
The concept of prochirality leads to the nomenclature of the individual faces of a molecule and plays a crucial role in the enantioselective reaction. It is a concept where two or more achiral molecules react to produce chiral products. A typical process is the reaction of an achiral ketone to generate a chiral alcohol. Here, the achiral reactant reacts with an achiral reducing agent, sodium borohydride, to generate an equimolar mixture of the chiral enantiomers of the product. For example, an...
3.8K
02:30Chirality at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur
5.8K
Chirality is most prevalent in carbon-based tetrahedral compounds, but this important facet of molecular symmetry extends to sp3-hybridized nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur centers, including trivalent molecules with lone pairs. Here, the lone pair behaves as a functional group in addition to the other three substituents to form an analogous tetrahedral center that can be chiral.
A consequence of chirality is the need for enantiomeric resolution. While this is theoretically possible for all...
A consequence of chirality is the need for enantiomeric resolution. While this is theoretically possible for all...
5.8K
01:26Polymer Classification: Stereospecificity
2.5K
Polymerization generates chiral centers along the entire backbone of a polymer chain. Accordingly, the stereochemistry of the substituent group has a significant effect on polymer properties. Polymers formed from monosubstituted alkene monomers feature chiral carbons at every alternate position in the polymer backbone. Relative to the predominant orientation of substituents at the adjacent chiral carbons, the polymer can exist in three different configurations: isotactic, syndiotactic, and...
2.5K
02:24Properties of Enantiomers and Optical Activity
17.2K
It is essential to understand the difference between chiral and achiral interactions and the implications thereof in optical activity and their applications. Just as our feet, which are chiral, interact uniquely with chiral objects, such as a pair of shoes, but identically with achiral socks, enantiomers of a molecule exhibit different properties only when they interact with other chiral media. An example of a significant implication from this facet is the phenomenon known as optical activity,...
17.2K