Field-induced quantum spin liquid in the Kitaev-Heisenberg model and its relation to $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$

Abstract

Recently considerable excitement has arisen due to the experimental observation of a field-induced spin liquid phase in the compound $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$. However, the nature of this putative spin liquid phase and the relevant microscopic model Hamiltonian remain still unclear. In this work, we address these questions by performing large-scale numerical simulations of a generalized Kitaev-Heisenberg model proposed to describe the physics of $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$. While there is no evidence for an intermediate phase for in-plane magnetic fields, our results strongly suggest that a stable intermediate spin liquid phase, sandwiched between a magnetically ordered phase at low fields and a high-field polarized phase, can be induced by out-of-plane magnetic fields. Moreover, we show that this field-induced spin liquid phase can be smoothly connected to a spin liquid possessing a spinon Fermi surface as proposed recently for the Kitaev model. The relevance of our results to $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$ is also discussed.

5 pages, 5 figures, 1 table + supplemental material

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Cited by in corpus (38)

• Magnetic field induced quantum phases in a tensor network study of Kitaev magnets
• Magnetic field induced intermediate quantum spin-liquid with a spinon Fermi surface
• A magnetic continuum observed by terahertz spectroscopy in a quantum spin liquid candidate BaCo${}_2$(AsO${}_4$)${}_2$
• Identification of Magnetic Interactions and High-field Quantum Spin Liquid in $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$
• Spin-1 Kitaev-Heisenberg model on a two-dimensional honeycomb lattice
• Magnetic anisotropy reversal driven by structural symmetry-breaking in monolayer α-RuCl3
• Magnetic Field Induced Competing Phases in Spin-Orbital Entangled Kitaev Magnets
• Heisenberg-Kitaev model in a magnetic field: $1/S$ expansion
• Theory of the Kitaev model in a [111] magnetic field
• Emergence of a nematic paramagnet via quantum order-by-disorder and pseudo-Goldstone modes in Kitaev magnets
• Magnetic Field Induced Spin Liquids in S=1 Kitaev Honeycomb Model
• Majorana-mediated spin transport without spin polarization in Kitaev quantum spin liquids
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• Field-induced phase transitions of the Kitaev material $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$ probed by thermal expansion and magnetostriction
• Novel chiral quantum spin liquids in Kitaev magnets
• Revealing the Phase Diagram of Kitaev Materials by Machine Learning: Cooperation and Competition between Spin Liquids
• Kitaev Quantum Spin Liquids
• Evidence of pair-density wave in doping Kitaev spin liquid on the honeycomb lattice
• Emergent Fermi surface in a triangular-lattice SU(4) quantum antiferromagnet
• Topological phase transition to Abelian anyon phases due to off-diagonal exchange interaction in the Kitaev spin liquid state
• Machine-Learned Phase Diagrams of Generalized Kitaev Honeycomb Magnets
• Emergence of Competing Orders and Possible Quantum Spin Liquid in SU(N) Fermions
• Emergent glassiness in disorder-free Kitaev model: Density matrix renormalization group study on a one-dimensional ladder setting
• Suppression of Antiferromagnetic Order by Strain in Honeycomb Cobaltate: Implication for Quantum Spin Liquid
• Proximate Kitaev system for an intermediate magnetic phase in in-plane magnetic fields
• Topological Nematic Phase Transition in Kitaev Magnets Under Applied Magnetic Fields
• Asymmetric modulation of Majorana excitation spectra and nonreciprocal thermal transport in the Kitaev spin liquid under a staggered magnetic field
• Topological phase diagrams of in-plane field polarized Kitaev magnets
• Interplay of magnetic field and trigonal distortion in the honeycomb $\Gamma$ model: Occurrence of a spin-flop phase
• Machine learning reveals features of spinon Fermi surface
• Exact deconfined gauge structures in the higher-spin Yao-Lee model: a quantum spin-orbital liquid with spin fractionalization and non-Abelian anyons
• Magnetostriction of α-RuCl3 flakes in the zigzag phase
• Anyon polarons as a window into competing phases of the Kitaev honeycomb model under a Zeeman field
• Field-induced phase transitions in the Kitaev-Heisenberg model: A sign-problem-free quantum Monte Carlo study and possible application to $\alpha$-RuCl3
• Phase diagram of the J1-J2 Heisenberg second-order topological quantum magnet
• Nature of the Topological Transition of the Kitaev Model in [111] Magnetic Field
• Dominant Kitaev Interaction and Field-induced Quantum Disordered Phase in the Cobaltate Na${}_2$Co${}_2$TeO${}_6$
• Nesting instability of gapless U(1) spin liquids with spinon Fermi pockets in two dimensions