Low Energy Magneto-optics of Tb$_{2}$Ti$_{2}$O$_{7}$ in [111] Magnetic Field

Abstract: The pyrochlore magnet Tb${2}$Ti${2}$O${7}$ shows a lack of magnetic order to low temperatures and is considered to be a quantum spin liquid candidate. We perform time-domain THz spectroscopy on high quality Tb${2}$Ti${2}$O${7}$ crystal and study the low energy excitations as a function of [111] magnetic field with high energy resolution. The low energy crystal field excitations change their energies anomalously under magnetic field. Despite several sharp field dependent changes, we show that the material's spectrum can be described not by a phase transitions, but by field dependent hybridization between the low energy crystal field levels. We highlight the strong coupling between spin and lattice degrees of freedom in Tb${2}$Ti${2}$O$_{7}$ as evidenced by the magnetic field tunable crystal field environment. Calculations based on single ion physics with field induced symmetry reduction of the crystal field environment can reproduce our data.