Long-lifetime spin excitations near domain walls in 1T-TaS2

Anuva Aishwarya; Arjun Raghavan; Sean Howard; Zhuozhen Cai; Gohil S Thakur; Choongjae Won; Sang-Wook Cheong; Claudia Felser; Vidya Madhavan

doi:10.1073/pnas.2121740119

Long-lifetime spin excitations near domain walls in 1T-TaS₂

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2022 May 31;119(22):e2121740119. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2121740119. Epub 2022 May 26.

Authors

Anuva Aishwarya^{1

2}, Arjun Raghavan^{1

2}, Sean Howard^{1

2}, Zhuozhen Cai^{1

2}, Gohil S Thakur^{3

4}, Choongjae Won^{5

6}, Sang-Wook Cheong^{5

6

7

8}, Claudia Felser³, Vidya Madhavan^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801.
² Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801.
³ Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, 01187 Dresden, Germany.
⁴ Faculty of Chemistry and Food Chemistry, Technical University, 01069 Dresden, Germany.
⁵ Laboratory for Pohang Emergent Materials, Department of Physics, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang 37673, Korea.
⁶ Max Plank Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) Center for Complex Phase Materials, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang 37673, Korea.
⁷ Rutgers Center for Emergent Materials, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854.
⁸ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854.

Abstract

SignificanceThere is an intense ongoing search for two-level quantum systems with long lifetimes for applications in quantum communication and computation. Much research has been focused on studying isolated spins in semiconductors or band insulators. Mott insulators provide an interesting alternative platform but have been far less explored. In this work we use a technique capable of resolving individual spins at atomic length scales, to measure the two-level switching of spin states in 1T-TaS₂. We find quasi-1D chains of spin-1/2 electrons embedded in 1T-TaS₂ which have exceptionally long lifetimes. The discovery of long-lived spin states in a tractable van der Waal material opens doors to using Mott systems in future quantum information applications.

Keywords: noise spectroscopy; scanning tunneling microscopy; spin chain.