Instabilities of heavy magnons in an anisotropic magnet

Xiaojian Bai (), Shang-Shun Zhang (), Hao Zhang, Zhiling Dun, W. Adam Phelan, V. Ovidiu Garlea, Martin Mourigal and Cristian D. Batista
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Xiaojian Bai: Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Shang-Shun Zhang: University of Tennessee
Hao Zhang: University of Tennessee
Zhiling Dun: Georgia Institute of Technology
W. Adam Phelan: The Johns Hopkins University
V. Ovidiu Garlea: Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Martin Mourigal: Georgia Institute of Technology
Cristian D. Batista: University of Tennessee

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract The search for new elementary particles is one of the most basic pursuits in physics, spanning from subatomic physics to quantum materials. Magnons are the ubiquitous elementary quasiparticle to describe the excitations of fully-ordered magnetic systems. But other possibilities exist, including fractional and multipolar excitations. Here, we demonstrate that strong quantum interactions exist between three flavors of elementary quasiparticles in the uniaxial spin-one magnet FeI2. Using neutron scattering in an applied magnetic field, we observe spontaneous decay between conventional and heavy magnons and the recombination of these quasiparticles into a super-heavy bound-state. Akin to other contemporary problems in quantum materials, the microscopic origin for unusual physics in FeI2 is the quasi-flat nature of excitation bands and the presence of Kitaev anisotropic magnetic exchange interactions.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-39940-1

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