Repulsive Tomonaga-Luttinger Liquid in Quasi-one-dimensional Alternating Spin-$1/2$ Antiferromagnet NaVOPO$_4$

Abstract

We probe the magnetic field-induced Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid (TLL) state in the bond-alternating spin-$1/2$ antiferromagnetic (AFM) chain compound NaVOPO$_4$ using thermodynamic as well as local $\mu$SR and $^{31}$P NMR probes down to milli-K temperatures in magnetic fields up to 14~T. The $\mu$SR and NMR relaxation rates in the gapless TLL regime decay slowly following characteristic power-law behaviour, enabling us to directly determine the interaction parameter $K$ as a function of the magnetic field. These estimates are cross-checked using magnetization and specific heat data. The field-dependent $K$ lies in the range of $0.4 < K < 1$ and indicates repulsive nature of interactions between the spinless fermions, in line with the theoretical predictions. This renders NaVOPO$_4$ the first experimental realization of TLL with repulsive fermionic interactions in hitherto studied $S=1/2$ bond-alternating AFM-AFM chain compounds.