Stacking disorder and thermal transport properties of $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$

Abstract

$\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$, a well-known candidate material for Kitaev quantum spin liquid, is prone to stacking disorder due to the weak van der Waals bonding between the honeycomb layers. After a decade of intensive experimental and theoretical studies, the detailed correlation between stacking degree of freedom, structure transition, magnetic and thermal transport properties remains unresolved. In this work, we reveal the effects of a small amount of stacking disorder inherent even in high quality $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$ crystals. This small amount of stacking disorder results in the variation of the magnetic ordering temperature, suppresses the structure transition and thermal conductivity. Crystals with minimal amount of stacking disorder have a T${}_N>$7.4\,K and exhibit a well-defined structure transition around 140\,K upon cooling. For those with more stacking faults and a T${}_N$ below 7\,K, the structure transition occurs well below 140\,K upon cooling and is incomplete, manifested by the diffuse streaks and the coexistence of both high temperature and low temperature phases down to the lowest measurement temperature. Both types of crystals exhibit oscillatory field dependent thermal conductivity and a plateau-like feature in thermal Hall resistivity in the field-induced quantum spin liquid state. However, $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$ crystals with minimal amount of stacking disorder have a higher thermal conductivity that pushes the thermal Hall conductivity to be closer to the half-integer quantized value. These findings demonstrate a strong correlation between layer stacking, structure transition, magnetic and thermal transport properties, underscoring the importance of interlayer coupling in $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$ despite the weak van der Waals bonding.

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Cited by in corpus (19)

• Kitaev Quantum Spin Liquids
• Easy-plane multi-$\mathbf{q}$ magnetic ground state of Na${}_3$Co${}_2$SbO${}_6$
• Phonon thermal transport shaped by strong spin-phonon scattering in a Kitaev material Na${}_2$Co${}_2$TeO${}_6$
• Two-step growth of high-quality single crystals of the Kitaev magnet $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$
• Diffuse Scattering from Correlated Electron Systems
• Charge-Neutral Electronic Excitations in Quantum Insulators
• Magnetothermal transport in ultraclean single crystals of Kitaev magnet $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$
• Planar thermal Hall effect from phonons in cuprates
• On the multi-$\mathbf{q}$ characteristics of magnetic ground states of honeycomb cobalt oxides
• Multinode quantum spin liquids in extended Kitaev honeycomb models: the view from variational Monte Carlo
• Static and fluctuating zigzag order, and possible signatures of Kitaev physics, in torque measurements of $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$
• Intermediate phases in $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$ under in-plane magnetic field via interlayer spin interactions
• Bulk excitations in ultraclean $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$: Quantitative evidence for Majorana dispersions in a Kitaev quantum spin liquid
• Extrinsic contribution to bosonic thermal Hall transport
• Direct evidence for anisotropic magnetic interaction in $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$ from polarized inelastic neutron scattering
• Pressure-dependent magnetism of the Kitaev candidate Li${}_2$RhO${}_3$
• Phenomenological Ginzburg-Landau theory for triple-Q magnetic orders on a hexagonal lattice
• Bond disorder in extended Heisenberg-Kitaev models: Spin textures and in-gap states in the high-field regime
• Anomalies in the thermal conductivity of honeycomb antiferromagnet MnPS${}_3$