Atomic-scale observation of structural and electronic orders in the layered compound α-RuCl3

Ziatdinov, Maxim A.; Banerjee, Arnab; Maksov, Artem B.; Berlijn, Tom; Zhou, Wu; Cao, Huibo; Yan, Jiaqiang; Bridges, Craig A.; Mandrus, D. G.; Nagler, Stephen E.; Baddorf, Arthur P; Kalinin, Sergei V

doi:10.1038/ncomms13774

Title: Atomic-scale observation of structural and electronic orders in the layered compound α-RuCl₃

Journal Article · Mon Dec 12 00:00:00 EST 2016 · Nature Communications

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13774· OSTI ID:1337025

Ziatdinov, Maxim A. ^[1]; Banerjee, Arnab ^[1]; Maksov, Artem B. ^[1]; Berlijn, Tom ^[1]; Zhou, Wu ^[1]; Cao, Huibo ^[1]; Yan, Jiaqiang ^[1]; Bridges, Craig A. ^[1]; Mandrus, D. G. ^[2]; Nagler, Stephen E. ^[1]; Baddorf, Arthur P ^[3]; Kalinin, Sergei V ^[3]

Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
ORNL

A pseudospin-1/2 Mott phase on a honeycomb lattice is proposed to host the celebrated two-dimensional Kitaev model which has an elusive quantum spin liquid ground state, and fascinating physics relevant to the development of future templates towards topological quantum bits. Here we report a comprehensive, atomically resolved real-space study by scanning transmission electron and scanning tunnelling microscopies on a novel layered material displaying Kitaev physics, -RuCl3. Our local crystallography analysis reveals considerable variations in the geometry of the ligand sublattice in thin films of -RuCl3 that opens a way to realization of a spatially inhomogeneous magnetic ground state at the nanometre length scale. Using scanning tunnelling techniques, we observe the electronic energy gap of 0.25 eV and intra-unit cell symmetry breaking of charge distribution in individual -RuCl3 surface layer. The corresponding charge-ordered pattern has a fine structure associated with two different types of charge disproportionation at Cl-terminated surface.

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Research Organization:: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725

OSTI ID:: 1337025

Journal Information:: Nature Communications, Vol. 7; ISSN 2041-1723

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 62 works

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