Jožef Stefan Institute

About: Jožef Stefan Institute is a facility organization based out in Ljubljana, Slovenia. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Liquid crystal & Dielectric. The organization has 3828 authors who have published 12614 publications receiving 291025 citations.

Gapless ground state in the archetypal quantum kagome antiferromagnet ZnCu3(OH)6Cl2

Abstract: Spin liquids are exotic phases of quantum matter that challenge Landau’s paradigm of symmetry-breaking phase transitions. Despite strong exchange interactions, spins do not order or freeze down to zero temperature. Although well established for one-dimensional quantum antiferromagnets, in higher dimensions where quantum fluctuations are less acute, realizing and understanding such states is a major issue, both theoretically and experimentally. In this regard, the simplest nearest-neighbour Heisenberg antiferromagnet Hamiltonian on the highly frustrated kagome lattice has proven to be a fascinating and inspiring model. The exact nature of its ground state remains elusive and the existence of a spin-gap is the first key issue to be addressed to discriminate between the various classes of proposed spin liquids. Here, through low-temperature NMR contrast experiments on high-quality single crystals, we single out the kagome susceptibility and the corresponding dynamics in the kagome archetype, the mineral herbertsmithite, ZnCu3(OH)6Cl2. We firmly conclude that this material does not harbour any spin-gap, which restores a convergence with recent numerical results promoting a gapless Dirac spin liquid as the ground state of the Heisenberg kagome antiferromagnet. Herbertsmithite is an experimental realization of the so-called quantum kagome antiferromagnet, a system that is predicted to host a spin liquid state down to zero temperature. Detailed NMR measurements now confirm that this is the case, and that its ground state is indeed gapless.

Tunneling spectroscopy of a single quantum dot coupled to a superconductor: From Kondo ridge to Andreev bound states

Abstract: We performed tunneling spectroscopy of a carbon nanotube quantum dot (QD) coupled to a metallic reservoir either in the normal or in the superconducting state. We explore how the Kondo resonance, observed when the QD's occupancy is odd and the reservoir is normal, evolves towards Andreev bound states (ABS) in the superconducting state. Within this regime, the ABS spectrum observed is consistent with a quantum phase transition from a singlet to a degenerate magnetic doublet ground state, in quantitative agreement with a single-level Anderson model with superconducting leads.