Spin Transport in Quantum Spin-Orbital Liquids

Abstract

Quantum spin-orbital liquids (QSOLs) are a novel phase of matter, similar to quantum spin liquids, with quantum fluctuations in both spin and orbital degrees of freedom. We use non-equilibrium Green's function theory to study out-of-equilibrium spin transport in an exactly solvable QSOL model put forward by Yao and Lee. We find that the spin transport problem can be mapped to that of a free fermion problem with effective fermionic baths that have rapidly varying density of states. In the gapless phase, the spin current $I_s-V_s$ relation is thus highly nonlinear, while in the chiral gapped phase, the spin current conductance is quantized to be $1/2\pi$ provided that the contacts are sufficiently wide. The quantized conductance is a signature of the topological nature of the chiral gapped QSOL.