Tomonaga-Luttinger spin liquid in the spin-1/2 inequilateral diamond-chain compound K$_3$Cu$_3$AlO$_2$(SO$_4$)$_4$

Abstract

K$_3$Cu$_3$AlO$_2$(SO$_4$)$_4$ is a highly one-dimensional spin-1/2 inequilateral diamond-chain antiferromagnet. Spinon continuum and spin-singlet dimer excitations are observed in the inelastic neutron scattering spectra, which is in excellent agreement with a theoretical prediction: a dimer-monomer composite structure, where the dimer is caused by strong antiferromagnetic (AFM) coupling and the monomer forms an almost isolated quantum AFM chain controlling low-energy excitations. Moreover, muon spin rotation/relaxation spectroscopy shows no long-range ordering down to 90~mK, which is roughly three orders of magnitude lower than the exchange interaction of the quantum AFM chain. K$_3$Cu$_3$AlO$_2$(SO$_4$)$_4$ is, thus, regarded as a compound that exhibits a Tomonaga-Luttinger spin liquid behavior at low temperatures close to the ground state.