Spinon Confinement in a 1D Quantum Antiferromagnet SrCo2V2O8
For quasi-one-dimensional quantum spin systems theory predicts the occurrence of a confinement of spinon excitations due to interchain couplings. Here we investigate the system SrCo2V2O8, a realization of the weakly coupled Ising-like XXZ antiferromagnetic chains, by terahertz spectroscopy with and without applied magnetic field.[1] At low temperatures a series of excitations is observed, which split in a Zeeman-like fashion in an applied magnetic field. These magnetic excitations are identified as the theoretically predicted spinon-pair excitations. Using a one-dimensional Schrödinger equation with a linear confinement potential imposed by weak interchain couplings, the hierarchy of the confined spinons can be fully described.
Reference
[1] Zhe Wang, M. Schmidt, A. K. Bera, A. T. M. N. Islam, B. Lake, A. Loidl, and J. Deisenhofer, Phys. Rev. B 91, 140404(R) (2015)