Finite field regime for a quantum spin liquid in α-RuCl3

Christian Balz; Paula Lampen-Kelley; Arnab Banerjee; Jiaqiang Yan; Zhilun Lu; Xinzhe Hu; Swapnil M. Yadav; Yasu Takano; Yaohua Liu; D. Alan Tennant; Mark D. Lumsden; David Mandrus; Stephen E. Nagler

doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.100.060405

Finite field regime for a quantum spin liquid in α-RuCl3

Christian Balz, Paula Lampen-Kelley, Arnab Banerjee, Jiaqiang Yan, Zhilun Lu, Xinzhe Hu, Swapnil M. Yadav, Yasu Takano, Yaohua Liu, D. Alan Tennant, Mark D. Lumsden, David Mandrus, Stephen E. Nagler

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92 Scopus citations

Abstract

An external magnetic field can induce a transition in α-RuCl3 from an ordered zigzag state to a disordered state that is possibly related to the Kitaev quantum spin liquid. Here, we present field-dependent inelastic neutron scattering and magnetocaloric effect measurements implying the existence of an additional transition out of the quantum spin-liquid phase at an upper field limit Bu. The neutron scattering shows three distinct regimes of magnetic response. In the low-field ordered state the response shows magnon peaks; the intermediate-field regime shows only continuum scattering, and above Bu the response shows sharp magnon peaks at the lower bound of a strong continuum. Measurable dispersion of magnon modes along the (0,0,L) direction implies non-negligible interplane interactions. Combining the magnetocaloric effect measurements with other data, a T-B phase diagram is constructed. The results constrain the range where one might expect to observe quantum spin-liquid behavior in α-RuCl3.

Original language	English
Article number	060405
Journal	Physical Review B
Volume	100
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.100.060405
State	Published - Aug 12 2019

Funding

We thank M. Meisel and S. Kivelson for valuable discussions. P.L.-K. and D.M. acknowledge support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation's EPiQS Initiative Grant No. GBMF4416. We acknowledge support from the U.S. Department of Energy (U.S.-DOE), Office of Science - Basic Energy Sciences (BES), Materials Sciences and Engineering Division. Work at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Spallation Neutron Source was supported by U.S.-DOE, Office of Science - BES, Scientific User Facilities Division. We thank the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin for the allocation of neutron beamtime. A portion of this work was performed at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, which is supported by the National Science Foundation Cooperative Agreement No. DMR-1644779 and the State of Florida.

Funders	Funder number
Office of Science - BES
Office of Science - Basic Energy Sciences
National Science Foundation
U.S. Department of Energy
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
Basic Energy Sciences
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering

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abstract = "An external magnetic field can induce a transition in α-RuCl3 from an ordered zigzag state to a disordered state that is possibly related to the Kitaev quantum spin liquid. Here, we present field-dependent inelastic neutron scattering and magnetocaloric effect measurements implying the existence of an additional transition out of the quantum spin-liquid phase at an upper field limit Bu. The neutron scattering shows three distinct regimes of magnetic response. In the low-field ordered state the response shows magnon peaks; the intermediate-field regime shows only continuum scattering, and above Bu the response shows sharp magnon peaks at the lower bound of a strong continuum. Measurable dispersion of magnon modes along the (0,0,L) direction implies non-negligible interplane interactions. Combining the magnetocaloric effect measurements with other data, a T-B phase diagram is constructed. The results constrain the range where one might expect to observe quantum spin-liquid behavior in α-RuCl3.",

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AU - Balz, Christian

AU - Lampen-Kelley, Paula

AU - Banerjee, Arnab

AU - Yan, Jiaqiang

AU - Lu, Zhilun

AU - Hu, Xinzhe

AU - Yadav, Swapnil M.

AU - Takano, Yasu

AU - Liu, Yaohua

AU - Tennant, D. Alan

AU - Lumsden, Mark D.

AU - Mandrus, David

AU - Nagler, Stephen E.

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N2 - An external magnetic field can induce a transition in α-RuCl3 from an ordered zigzag state to a disordered state that is possibly related to the Kitaev quantum spin liquid. Here, we present field-dependent inelastic neutron scattering and magnetocaloric effect measurements implying the existence of an additional transition out of the quantum spin-liquid phase at an upper field limit Bu. The neutron scattering shows three distinct regimes of magnetic response. In the low-field ordered state the response shows magnon peaks; the intermediate-field regime shows only continuum scattering, and above Bu the response shows sharp magnon peaks at the lower bound of a strong continuum. Measurable dispersion of magnon modes along the (0,0,L) direction implies non-negligible interplane interactions. Combining the magnetocaloric effect measurements with other data, a T-B phase diagram is constructed. The results constrain the range where one might expect to observe quantum spin-liquid behavior in α-RuCl3.

AB - An external magnetic field can induce a transition in α-RuCl3 from an ordered zigzag state to a disordered state that is possibly related to the Kitaev quantum spin liquid. Here, we present field-dependent inelastic neutron scattering and magnetocaloric effect measurements implying the existence of an additional transition out of the quantum spin-liquid phase at an upper field limit Bu. The neutron scattering shows three distinct regimes of magnetic response. In the low-field ordered state the response shows magnon peaks; the intermediate-field regime shows only continuum scattering, and above Bu the response shows sharp magnon peaks at the lower bound of a strong continuum. Measurable dispersion of magnon modes along the (0,0,L) direction implies non-negligible interplane interactions. Combining the magnetocaloric effect measurements with other data, a T-B phase diagram is constructed. The results constrain the range where one might expect to observe quantum spin-liquid behavior in α-RuCl3.

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Finite field regime for a quantum spin liquid in α-RuCl3

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