Dynamical time-reversal symmetry breaking and photo-induced chiral spin liquids in frustrated Mott insulators.

ABSTRACT: The search for quantum spin liquids in frustrated quantum magnets recently has enjoyed a surge of interest, with various candidate materials under intense scrutiny. However, an experimental confirmation of a gapped topological spin liquid remains an open question. Here, we show that circularly polarized light can provide a knob to drive frustrated Mott insulators into a chiral spin liquid, realizing an elusive quantum spin liquid with topological order. We find that the dynamics of a driven Kagome Mott insulator is well-captured by an effective Floquet spin model, with heating strongly suppressed, inducing a scalar spin chirality S _i · (S _j  × S _k ) term which dynamically breaks time-reversal while preserving SU(2) spin symmetry. We fingerprint the transien

SUBMITTER: Claassen M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5662750 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature