Anisotropic susceptibilities in the honeycomb Kitaev system α-RuCl3

P. Lampen-Kelley; S. Rachel; J. Reuther; J. Q. Yan; A. Banerjee; C. A. Bridges; H. B. Cao; S. E. Nagler; D. Mandrus

doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.98.100403

Anisotropic susceptibilities in the honeycomb Kitaev system α-RuCl3

P. Lampen-Kelley, S. Rachel, J. Reuther, J. Q. Yan, A. Banerjee, C. A. Bridges, H. B. Cao, S. E. Nagler, D. Mandrus

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Abstract

The magnetic insulator α-RuCl3 is a promising candidate to realize Kitaev interactions on a quasi-two-dimensional honeycomb lattice. We perform extensive susceptibility measurements on single crystals of α-RuCl3, including angle dependence of the in-plane longitudinal and transverse susceptibilities, which reveal a unidirectional anisotropy within the honeycomb plane. By comparing the experimental results to a high-temperature expansion of a Kitaev-Heisenberg-Γ spin Hamiltonian with bond anisotropy, we find excellent agreement with the observed phase shift and periodicity of the angle-resolved susceptibilities. Within this model, we show that the pronounced difference between in-plane and out-of-plane susceptibilities as well as the finite transverse susceptibility are rooted in strong symmetric off-diagonal Γ spin exchange. The Γ couplings and relationships between other terms in the model Hamiltonian are quantified by extracting relevant Curie-Weiss intercepts from the experimental data.

Original language	English
Article number	100403
Journal	Physical Review B
Volume	98
Issue number	10
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.98.100403
State	Published - Sep 12 2018

Funding

Acknowledgments. We acknowledge discussions with J. van den Brink, B. Büchner, P. Gegenwart, L. Janssen, R. Thomale, M. Vojta, and A. U. B. Wolter. P.L.K. and D.M. were supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation's EPiQS Initiative Grant No. GBMF4416. J.-Q.Y. and C.A.B. acknowledge support from the U.S. Department of Energy (U.S.-DOE), Office of Science - Basic Energy Sciences (BES), Materials Sciences and Engineering Division. A.B., H.B.C., S.E.N. and the work at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory High Flux Isotope Reactor were supported by U.S.-DOE, Office of Science - BES, Scientific User Facilities Division. S.R. was supported by the DFG through SFB 1143 and an ARC Future Fellowship (FT180100211). J.R. is supported by the Freie Universität Berlin within the Excellence Initiative of the German Research Foundation.

Funders	Funder number
Office of Science - BES
Office of Science - Basic Energy Sciences
U.S. Department of Energy
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation	GBMF4416
Basic Energy Sciences
Automotive Research Center	FT180100211
Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft	SFB 1143
Freie Universität Berlin

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10.1103/PhysRevB.98.100403

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abstract = "The magnetic insulator α-RuCl3 is a promising candidate to realize Kitaev interactions on a quasi-two-dimensional honeycomb lattice. We perform extensive susceptibility measurements on single crystals of α-RuCl3, including angle dependence of the in-plane longitudinal and transverse susceptibilities, which reveal a unidirectional anisotropy within the honeycomb plane. By comparing the experimental results to a high-temperature expansion of a Kitaev-Heisenberg-Γ spin Hamiltonian with bond anisotropy, we find excellent agreement with the observed phase shift and periodicity of the angle-resolved susceptibilities. Within this model, we show that the pronounced difference between in-plane and out-of-plane susceptibilities as well as the finite transverse susceptibility are rooted in strong symmetric off-diagonal Γ spin exchange. The Γ couplings and relationships between other terms in the model Hamiltonian are quantified by extracting relevant Curie-Weiss intercepts from the experimental data.",

author = "P. Lampen-Kelley and S. Rachel and J. Reuther and Yan, {J. Q.} and A. Banerjee and Bridges, {C. A.} and Cao, {H. B.} and Nagler, {S. E.} and D. Mandrus",

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AU - Rachel, S.

AU - Reuther, J.

AU - Yan, J. Q.

AU - Banerjee, A.

AU - Bridges, C. A.

AU - Cao, H. B.

AU - Nagler, S. E.

AU - Mandrus, D.

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AB - The magnetic insulator α-RuCl3 is a promising candidate to realize Kitaev interactions on a quasi-two-dimensional honeycomb lattice. We perform extensive susceptibility measurements on single crystals of α-RuCl3, including angle dependence of the in-plane longitudinal and transverse susceptibilities, which reveal a unidirectional anisotropy within the honeycomb plane. By comparing the experimental results to a high-temperature expansion of a Kitaev-Heisenberg-Γ spin Hamiltonian with bond anisotropy, we find excellent agreement with the observed phase shift and periodicity of the angle-resolved susceptibilities. Within this model, we show that the pronounced difference between in-plane and out-of-plane susceptibilities as well as the finite transverse susceptibility are rooted in strong symmetric off-diagonal Γ spin exchange. The Γ couplings and relationships between other terms in the model Hamiltonian are quantified by extracting relevant Curie-Weiss intercepts from the experimental data.

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Anisotropic susceptibilities in the honeycomb Kitaev system α-RuCl3

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