Spinons are one of three quasiparticles, along with holons and orbitons, that electrons in solids are able to split into during the process of spin–charge separation, when extremely tightly confined at temperatures close to absolute zero.
As a result, in order to move past each other in an extremely crowded environment, they are forced to modify their behavior.
Research published in July 2009 by the University of Cambridge and the University of Birmingham in England showed that electrons could jump from the surface of the metal onto a closely located quantum wire by quantum tunneling, and upon doing so, will separate into two quasiparticles, named spinons and holons by the researchers.
[4][5] Its experimental observation as a separate quasiparticle was reported in paper sent to publishers in September 2011.
[6][7] The research states that by firing a beam of X-ray photons at a single electron in a one-dimensional sample of strontium cuprate, this will excite the electron to a higher orbital, causing the beam to lose a fraction of its energy in the process.