Thermodynamic evidence of fermionic behavior in the vicinity of one-ninth plateau in a kagome antiferromagnet

Abstract

The spin-1/2 kagome Heisenberg antiferromagnets are believed to host exotic quantum entangled states. Recently, the report of 1/9 magnetization plateau and magnetic oscillations in a kagome antiferromagnet YCu$_3$(OH)$_6$Br$_2$[Br$_x$(OH)$_{1-x}$] (YCOB) have made this material a promising candidate for experimentally realizing quantum spin liquid states. Here we present measurements of the specific heat $C_p$ in YCOB in high magnetic fields (up to 41.5 Tesla) down to 0.46 Kelvin, and the 1/9 plateau feature has been confirmed. Moreover, the temperature dependence of $C_p/T$ in the vicinity of 1/9 plateau region can be fitted by a linear in $T$ term which indicates the presence of a Dirac spectrum, together with a constant term, which indicates a finite density of states (DOS) contributed by other Fermi surfaces. Surprisingly the constant term is highly anisotropic in the direction of the magnetic field. Additionally, we observe a double-peak feature near $30$~T above the 1/9 plateau which is another hallmark of fermionic excitations in the specific heat.