Triplon band splitting and topologically protected edge states in the dimerized antiferromagnet

Nawa, Kazuhiro*; Tanaka, Kimihito*; Kurita, Nubuyuki*; Sato, Taku*; Sugiyama, Haruki*; Uekusa, Hidehiro*; Kawamura, Seiko; Nakajima, Kenji; Tanaka, Hidekazu*

Nature Communications (Internet), 10, p.2096_1 - 2096_8, 2019/05

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10091-6

Search for topological materials has been actively promoted in the field of condensed matter physics for their potential application in energy-efficient information transmission and processing. Recent studies have revealed that topologically invariant states, such as edge states in topological insulators, can emerge not only in a fermionic electron system but also in a bosonic system, enabling nondissipative propagation of quasiparticles. Here we report the topologically nontrivial triplon bands measured by inelastic neutron scattering on the spin-1/2 two-dimensional dimerized antiferromagnet BaCuSiOCl. The excitation spectrum exhibits two triplon bands that are clearly separated by a band gap due to a small alternation in interdimer exchange interaction, consistent with a refined crystal structure. By analytically modeling the triplon dispersion, we show that BaCuSiOCl is the first bosonic realization of the coupled Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model, where the presence of topologically protected edge states is prompted by a bipartite nature of the lattice.