Impact of off-diagonal exchange interactions on the Kitaev spin liquid state of $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$

Abstract

Motivated by the recent experimental observation of the half-quantized thermal Hall conductivity for the candidate material of the Kitaev spin liquid, $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$[ Y. Kasahara et al., Nature 559, 227 (2018)], we investigate effects of non-Kitaev exchange interactions, which exist in the real material, on the gapped chiral spin liquid state realized in the case with an applied magnetic field. It is found that off-diagonal exchange interactions enhance significantly the mass gap of Majorana fermions. This result provides a possible explanation for robust quantization of the thermal Hall conductivity observed in the above-mentioned experiment. Furthermore, we demonstrate that if the Kitaev spin liquid state and the zigzag antiferromagnetic order coexist around the border of these two phases, off-diagonal exchange interactions can induce Fermi surfaces of Majorana fermions, leading to a state similar to the U(1) spin liquid.

arXiv comment9 pages, 7 figures, some clarifications and references are added

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• Hunting Majorana Fermions in Kitaev Magnets
• Finite field regime for a quantum spin liquid in $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$
• Magnon bound states vs. anyonic Majorana excitations in the Kitaev honeycomb magnet $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$
• Dynamical and thermal magnetic properties of the Kitaev spin liquid candidate $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$
• Magnetic field induced intermediate quantum spin-liquid with a spinon Fermi surface
• Thermal Hall effects in quantum magnets
• STM as a single Majorana detector of Kitaev's chiral spin liquid
• Magnetic Field Induced Spin Liquids in S=1 Kitaev Honeycomb Model
• Linear and Nonlinear Optical Responses in Kitaev Spin Liquids
• Competing Antiferromagnetic-Ferromagnetic States in $d^7$ Kitaev Honeycomb Magnet
• Identification of a Kitaev Quantum Spin Liquid by Magnetic Field Angle Dependence
• Characterizing quantum criticality and steered coherence in the XY-Gamma chain
• Gapless quantum spin liquid in a honeycomb $\Gamma$ magnet
• Lifshitz phase transitions in one-dimensional Gamma model
• Light-Induced Control of Magnetic Phases in Kitaev Quantum Magnets
• Nonequilibrium Majorana Dynamics by Quenching a Magnetic Field in Kitaev Spin Liquids
• Non-local spin correlation as a signature of Ising anyons trapped in vacancies of the Kitaev spin liquid
• Topological phase transition to Abelian anyon phases due to off-diagonal exchange interaction in the Kitaev spin liquid state
• Magnetoelectric generation of a Majorana-Fermi surface in Kitaev's honeycomb model
• Quantum phase transitions in the spin-1 Kitaev-Heisenberg chain
• Oscillations of the thermal conductivity observed in the spin-liquid state of $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$
• Electric-field control of magnetic anisotropies: applications to Kitaev spin liquids and topological spin textures
• Topological Nematic Phase Transition in Kitaev Magnets Under Applied Magnetic Fields
• Dissipationless Spin Current Generation in Kitaev's Chiral Spin Liquid
• Counterdiabatic route for preparation of state with long-range topological order
• Thermodynamic evidence for field-angle dependent Majorana gap in a Kitaev spin liquid
• Asymmetric modulation of Majorana excitation spectra and nonreciprocal thermal transport in the Kitaev spin liquid under a staggered magnetic field
• Interplay of magnetic field and trigonal distortion in the honeycomb $\Gamma$ model: Occurrence of a spin-flop phase
• Dynamical response theory of interacting Majorana fermions and its application to generic Kitaev quantum spin liquids in a field
• Field-driven spatiotemporal manipulation of Majorana zero modes in a Kitaev spin liquid
• Electric probe for the toric code phase in Kitaev materials through the hyperfine interaction
• Phonon Dynamics in the Chiral Kitaev Spin Liquid
• Crystalline electric field excitations and their nonlinear splitting under magnetic fields in YbOCl
• Real-time control of non-Abelian anyons in Kitaev spin liquid under energy dissipation
• Emergent gapless spiral phases and conformal Lifshitz criticality in the cluster Ising model with off-diagonal interactions
• Tunable chiral spiral phases in a non-Hermitian Ising-Gamma spin chain
• Signatures of a Majorana-Fermi surface in the Kitaev magnet Ag${}_3$LiIr${}_2$O${}_6$
• Tuning the Chern number of Kitaev quantum spin liquid
• Magnetic field effects on the Kitaev model coupled to environment