Related papers: Intermediate phases in $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$ under in-…
Raman scattering has been employed to investigate lattice and magnetic excitations of the honeycomb Kitaev material $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$ and its Heisenberg counterpart CrCl$_3$. Our phonon Raman spectra give evidence for a first-order…
Mott insulators with strong spin-orbit coupling have been proposed to host unconventional magnetic states, including the Kitaev quantum spin liquid. The 4$d$ system $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$ has recently come into view as a candidate Kitaev system,…
Measurements of the magnetic Gr\"uneisen parameter ($\Gamma_B$) and specific heat on the Kitaev material candidate $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$ are used to access in-plane field- and temperature-dependence of the entropy up to 12 T and down to 1 K. No…
Nearly two decades ago, Alexei Kitaev proposed a model for spin-$1/2$ particles with bond-directional interactions on a two-dimensional honeycomb lattice which had the potential to host a quantum spin-liquid ground state. This work…
Maximizing the ratio between Kitaev and residual Heisenberg interactions is a major goal in nowadays research on Kitaev-Heisenberg quantum magnets. Here we investigate Kitaev-Heisenberg exchange in a recently discovered crystalline phase of…
Magnetic materials are composed of the simple building blocks of magnetic moments on a crystal lattice that interact via magnetic exchange. Yet from this simplicity emerges a remarkable diversity of magnetic states. Some reveal the deep…
We examine the role of spin-orbit coupling in the electronic structure of $\alpha$-RuCl3, in which Ru ions in 4d5 configuration form a honeycomb lattice. The measured optical spectra exhibit a clear optical gap and excitations within the…
YbOCl is a representative member of the van der Waals layered honeycomb rare-earth chalcohalide REChX (RE = rare earth, Ch = O, S, Se, and Te, and X = F, Cl, Br, and I) family reported recently. Its spin ground state remains to be explored…
Na$_2$IrO$_3$, a honeycomb 5$d^5$ oxide, has been recently identified as a potential realization of the Kitaev spin lattice. The basic feature of this spin model is that for each of the three metal-metal links emerging out of a metal site,…
The honeycomb compound $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$ is widely discussed as a proximate Kitaev spin-liquid material. This scenario builds on spin-orbit entangled $j = 1/2$ moments arising for a $t_{2g}^5$ electron configuration with strong spin-orbit…
Competition and cooperation between electron correlation and relativistic spin-orbit coupling give rise to diverse exotic quantum phenomena in solids. An illustrative example is spin-orbit entangled quantum liquids, which exhibit remarkable…
There have been constant efforts to find exotic quantum spin-liquid (QSL) materials. Some of the transition metal insulators dominated by the direction dependent anisotropic exchange interaction (Kitaev model for honeycomb network of…
We report magnetic, thermodynamic, thermal expansion, and on detailed optical experiments on the layered compound $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$ focusing on the THz and sub-gap optical response across the structural phase transition from the monoclinic…
The temperature-magnetic-field phase diagram of the mixed honeycomb triangular lattice system K$_{2}$Mn$_{3}$(VO$_{4}$)$_{2}$CO$_{3}$ is investigated by means of magnetization, heat capacity and neutron scattering measurements. The results…
The possible existence of a quantum spin liquid (QSL) phase, an exotic state of matter with long-range quantum entanglement and fractionalized excitations, in $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$ has sparked widespread interests in exploring QSLs in various…
We report on the unusual behavior of the in-plane thermal conductivity ($\kappa$) and torque ($\tau$) response in the Kitaev-Heisenberg material $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$. $\kappa$ shows a striking enhancement with linear growth beyond H = 7 T,…
Recent theoretical studies have suggested that Kitaev physics and such effects as formation of a mysterious spin-liquid state can be expected not only in RuCl3 and iridates, but also in conventional $3d$ transition metal compounds. Using DC…
In the Kitaev honeycomb model, spins coupled by strongly-frustrated anisotropic interactions do not order at low temperature but instead form a quantum spin liquid with spin fractionalization into Majorana fermions and static fluxes. The…
Rare-earth materials hold promise to realize exotic magnetic states owing to synergy between electron correlations and spin-orbit coupling. Recently, quasi-two-dimensional honeycomb magnets $A_2$PrO$_3$ ($A$ = alkali metals) were predicted…
Motivated by the possibility of an intermediate U(1) quantum spin liquid phase in out-of-plane magnetic fields and enhanced magnetic fluctuations in exfoliated {\alpha}-RuCl3 flakes, we study magneto-Raman spectra of exfoliated multilayer…