Higgs-mode electromagnon in the spin-spiral multiferroic CuBr${}_2$

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Fichera, Bryan T., Kumar, Ajesh, Lv, Baiqing, Shen, Zongqi, Morey, Karna, Song, Qian, Ilyas, Batyr, Luo, Tianchuang, Comin, Riccardo, Senthil, T., Gedik, Nuh
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866912347135672320
author Fichera, Bryan T.
Kumar, Ajesh
Lv, Baiqing
Shen, Zongqi
Morey, Karna
Song, Qian
Ilyas, Batyr
Luo, Tianchuang
Comin, Riccardo
Senthil, T.
Gedik, Nuh
author_facet Fichera, Bryan T.
Kumar, Ajesh
Lv, Baiqing
Shen, Zongqi
Morey, Karna
Song, Qian
Ilyas, Batyr
Luo, Tianchuang
Comin, Riccardo
Senthil, T.
Gedik, Nuh
contents Below a continuous symmetry breaking phase transition, the relevant collective excitations are due to longitudinal and transverse fluctuations of the order parameter, which are referred to as Higgs and Goldstone modes, respectively. In solids, these modes may take on a different character than the equivalent excitations in particle physics due to the diverse vacuum states accessible in condensed matter. However, the Higgs mode in particular is quite difficult to observe experimentally as it decays quickly into the lower-energy Goldstone bosons and thus has a negligible lifetime in most systems. In this work, we report evidence for a novel Higgs mode in the multiferroic material CuBr${}_2$, which shows up as a coherent oscillation in the time-resolved second harmonic generation signal upon excitation with a femtosecond light pulse. Since the spiral spin order in CuBr${}_2$ induces a nonzero electric dipole moment in equilibrium, the Higgs mode--which is due to fluctuations in the amplitude of the on-site spin expectation value--is an electromagnon, and thus acquires an inversion quantum number of -1. This is in stark contrast to the Higgs boson of particle physics, which has even parity. Moreover, the excitation described here represents an entirely new type of electromagnon, distinct from the traditional electromagnon in linear spin wave theory which is due to the Goldstone mode.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_18716
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Higgs-mode electromagnon in the spin-spiral multiferroic CuBr${}_2$
Fichera, Bryan T.
Kumar, Ajesh
Lv, Baiqing
Shen, Zongqi
Morey, Karna
Song, Qian
Ilyas, Batyr
Luo, Tianchuang
Comin, Riccardo
Senthil, T.
Gedik, Nuh
Strongly Correlated Electrons
Materials Science
Below a continuous symmetry breaking phase transition, the relevant collective excitations are due to longitudinal and transverse fluctuations of the order parameter, which are referred to as Higgs and Goldstone modes, respectively. In solids, these modes may take on a different character than the equivalent excitations in particle physics due to the diverse vacuum states accessible in condensed matter. However, the Higgs mode in particular is quite difficult to observe experimentally as it decays quickly into the lower-energy Goldstone bosons and thus has a negligible lifetime in most systems. In this work, we report evidence for a novel Higgs mode in the multiferroic material CuBr${}_2$, which shows up as a coherent oscillation in the time-resolved second harmonic generation signal upon excitation with a femtosecond light pulse. Since the spiral spin order in CuBr${}_2$ induces a nonzero electric dipole moment in equilibrium, the Higgs mode--which is due to fluctuations in the amplitude of the on-site spin expectation value--is an electromagnon, and thus acquires an inversion quantum number of -1. This is in stark contrast to the Higgs boson of particle physics, which has even parity. Moreover, the excitation described here represents an entirely new type of electromagnon, distinct from the traditional electromagnon in linear spin wave theory which is due to the Goldstone mode.
title Higgs-mode electromagnon in the spin-spiral multiferroic CuBr${}_2$
topic Strongly Correlated Electrons
Materials Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.18716