Thermodynamic Evidence of Fermionic Behavior in the Vicinity of One-Ninth Plateau in a Kagome Antiferromagnet

The spin-1/2 kagome Heisenberg antiferromagnets are believed to host exotic quantum entangled states. Recently, the reports of 1/9 magnetization plateau and magnetic oscillations in a kagome antiferromagnet YCu3(OH)6Br2[Brx(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 Cp in YCOB in high magnetic fields (up to 41.5 T) down to 0.46 K, and the 1/9 plateau feature has been confirmed. Moreover, the temperature dependence of Cp/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 contributed by other spinon 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. This combination of gapless behavior and the double-peak structure strongly suggests that the 1/9 plateau in YCOB is nontrivial and hosts fermionic quasiparticles. Published by the American Physical Society 2025