Pursuing the exotic quantum spin liquid (QSL) state in the Kitaev material α-RuCl3 has intrigued great research interest recently. A fascinating question is on the possible existence of field-induced QSL phase in this compound. Here we perform a high-field measurement of the magnetization process of α-RuCl3 up to 102 T employing the non-destructive and destructive pulsed magnets. Under the out-of-plane field along the c∗ axis (i.e., perpendicular to the honeycomb plane), two quantum phase transitions are uncovered at respectively 36 T and about 83 T, between which there lies an intermediate phase as the predicted QSL. By measuring the magnetization data with fields tilted from the c∗ axis up to 90∘ (i.e., in-plane direction), we obtain the field-angle phase diagram that contains the zigzag, paramagnetic, and QSL phases. Based on the accurate K-J-Γ-Γ′ model of α-RuCl3, we perform density matrix renormalization group simulations and reproduce the quantum phase diagram in excellent agreement with experiments.
@article{arxiv.2201.04597,
title = {Possible Intermediate Quantum Spin Liquid Phase in $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$ under High Magnetic Fields up to 100 T},
author = {Xu-Guang Zhou and Han Li and Yasuhiro H. Matsuda and Akira Matsuo and Wei Li and Nobuyuki Kurita and Gang Su and Koichi Kindo and Hidekazu Tanaka},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2201.04597},
year = {2023}
}