Spinons in the strongly correlated copper oxide chains in SrCuO2

Phys Rev Lett. 2004 Aug 20;93(8):087202. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.93.087202. Epub 2004 Aug 16.

Abstract

We have investigated the spin dynamics in the strongly correlated chain copper oxide SrCuO2 for energies up to greater, similar 0.6 eV using inelastic neutron scattering. We observe a gapless continuum of magnetic excitations, which is well described by the "Müller ansatz" for the two-spinon continuum in the S=1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg spin chain. The lower boundary of the continuum extends up to approximately 360 meV, which corresponds to an exchange constant J=226(12) meV.