Coherent magnetic oscillation in the spin ladder system alpha(')- NaV2O5

Phys Rev Lett. 2002 Mar 25;88(12):127201. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.127201. Epub 2002 Mar 7.

Abstract

We report the first observation of coherent magnetic excitations in a spin ladder system NaV2O5 by using femtosecond time-domain spectroscopy. A pronounced coherent oscillation is observed at 127 cm(-1) (nearly twice the spin gap energy) and assigned to a two-magnon bound state, based on the temperature dependence of the intensity below the charge ordering phase transition at T(C) = 34 K. This mode can be observable only when circularly polarized light is used as a pump or a probe beam, suggesting that it corresponds to a spin-flip excitation from the singlet ground state. A phonon mode strongly coupled to the spin state is also found at 303 cm(-1).