Direct evidence for anisotropic magnetic interaction in $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$ from polarized inelastic neutron scattering

Abstract

Polarized neutron scattering experiments reveal the anisotropy of magnetic correlations in the candidate Kitaev material $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$. The anisotropy of the inelastic response at the magnetic Bragg positions is just opposite to the expectation for a simple Heisenberg model. Near the antiferromagnetic $q$ vector, there are no low-energy transversal magnon modes directly documenting the fully anisotropic and bond-directional character of the magnetic interaction in $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$. However, other findings disagree with a simple or strongly dominant Kitaev component.

7 pages 4 figures

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Cited by in corpus (1)

• Magnetic excitations in the Kitaev material Na${}_2$IrO${}_3$ studied by neutron scattering