α-RuCl3: A spin-orbit assisted Mott insulator on a honeycomb lattice

By K. Plumb, J. Clancy, L. Sandilands, V. Shankar, Yongfeng Hu, K. Burch, H. Kee, Young-June Kim. 2014

560 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We examine the role of spin-orbit coupling in the electronic structure of $\alpha$-RuCl3, in which Ru ions in 4d5 configuration form a honeycomb lattice. The measured optical spectra exhibit a clear optical gap and excitations within the t2g orbitals. The spectra can be described very well with first-principles electronic structure calculations obtained by taking into account both spin orbit coupling and electron correlations. Furthermore, our X-ray absorption spectroscopy measurements at the Ru L-edges exhibit distinct spectral features associated with the presence of substantial spin- orbit coupling, as well as an anomalously large branching ratio. We propose that $\alpha$-RuCl3 is a spin-orbit assisted Mott insulator, and the bond-dependent Kitaev interaction may be relevant for this compound.

Subfields: Condensed Matter Physics, Electrical and Electronic Engineering

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/92f4cf5654035a4b477fa95a275eddfb1b21c7cb

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Condensed Matter Physics

1. Simon Trebst
2. C. Hickey
3. M. McGuire
4. J. Knolle
5. M. Hermanns
6. I. Kimchi

In Electrical and Electronic Engineering

1. Simon Trebst
2. C. Hickey
3. M. McGuire

Citations in the corpus

• Physics of the Kitaev Model: Fractionalization, Dynamic Correlations, and Material Connections (2017, background): “The good agreement of a recent ED study with the INS results discussed above [126] was interpreted in terms of such a magnon breakdown picture for the zigzag order seen in RuCl3.”
• Probing and controlling magnetic states in 2D layered magnetic materials (2019, unknown): “Instead, magnetic frustration originates from anisotropic exchange interactions that result from the much stronger SOC for 4 d electrons compared with 3 d electrons 65,66 .”
• Kitaev materials (2017, background): “It was only in 2014 that the group of Young-June Kim realized that α-RuCl3 is in fact a spin-orbit assisted j = 1/2 Mott insulator [113].”
• Crystal and Magnetic Structures in Layered, Transition Metal Dihalides and Trihalides (2017, background): “With je f f = 1/2 and strong spin orbit coupling on a honeycomb lattice, RuCl3 is identified as a promising system for studying the Kitaev model [9,10,144].”