Matter-light interaction is at the center of diverse research fields from quantum optics to condensed matter physics, opening new fields like laser physics. A magnetic exciton is one such rare example found in magnetic insulators. However, it is relatively rare to observe that external variables control matter-light interaction. Here, we report that the broken inversion symmetry of multiferroicity can act as an external knob enabling the magnetic exciton in van der Waals antiferromagnet NiI2. We further discover that this magnetic exciton arises from a transition between Zhang-Rice-triplet and Zhang-Rice-singlet's fundamentally quantum entangled states. This quantum entanglement produces an ultra-sharp optical exciton peak at 1.384 eV with a 5 meV linewidth. Our work demonstrates that NiI2 is two-dimensional magnetically ordered with an intrinsically quantum entangled ground state.
@article{arxiv.2112.11692,
title = {Multiferroic-enabled magnetic exciton in 2D quantum entangled van der Waals antiferromagnet NiI2},
author = {Suhan Son and Youjin Lee and Jae Ha Kim and Beom Hyun Kim and Chaebin Kim and Woongki Na and Hwiin Ju and Sudong Park and Abhishek Nag and Ke-Jin Zhou and Young-Woo Son and Hyeongdo Kim and Woo-Suk Noh and Jae-Hoon Park and Jong Seok Lee and Hyeonsik Cheong and Jae Hoon Kim and Je-Geun Park},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2112.11692},
year = {2021}
}
Comments
26 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in Advanced Materials