Relation between Kitaev magnetism and structure in $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$

Abstract

Raman scattering has been employed to investigate lattice and magnetic excitations of the honeycomb Kitaev material $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$ and its Heisenberg counterpart CrCl${}_3$. Our phonon Raman spectra give evidence for a first-order structural transition from a monoclinic to a rhombohedral structure for both compounds. Significantly, only $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$ features a large thermal hysteresis, consistent with the formation of a wide phase of coexistence. In the related temperature interval of $70-170$ K, we observe a hysteretic behavior of magnetic excitations as well. The stronger magnetic response in the rhombohedral compared to the monoclinic phase evidences a coupling between the crystallographic structure and low-energy magnetic response. Our results demonstrate that the Kitaev magnetism concomitant with fractionalized excitations is susceptible to small variations of bonding geometry.

9 pages, 8 figures, To appear in PRB

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Cited by in corpus (78)

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• Dynamic fingerprint of fractionalized excitations in single-crystalline Cu${}_3$Zn(OH)${}_6$FBr
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• Exact resummation of the Holstein-Primakoff expansion and differential equation approach to operator square-roots
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• THz excitations in α-RuCl3: Majorana fermions, rigid-plane shear and compression modes
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• Probing signatures of fractionalization in candidate quantum spin liquid Cu2IrO3 via anomalous Raman scattering
• Multiple Spin-Orbit Excitons and the Electronic Structure of $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$
• Spin-crossover induced ferromagnetism and layer stacking-order change in pressurized 2D antiferromagnet MnPS${}_3$
• Uniaxial and hydrostatic pressure effects in alpha-RuCl3 single crystals via thermal-expansion measurements
• Appearance of T${}_d^{\ast }$ phase across the T${}_d$-1T${}^{\prime }$ phase boundary in Weyl semimetal MoTe${}_2$
• Thermal Hall Effect in the Kitaev-Heisenberg System with Spin-Phonon Coupling
• Physical Vapor Transport Growth of Antiferromagnetic CrCl${}_3$ Flakes Down to Monolayer Thickness
• Footprints of the Kitaev spin liquid in the Fano lineshapes of the Raman active optical phonons
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• Detuning the Honeycomb of the α-RuCl3 Kitaev lattice: A case of Cr3+ dopant
• Local spin structure of the $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$ honeycomb-lattice magnet observed via muon spin rotation/relaxation
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• Phonons and phase symmetries in bulk $CrC{l}_3$ from scattering measurements and theory
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