DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Antiferromagnetic Resonance and Terahertz Continuum in α - RuCl 3

Journal Article · · Physical Review Letters
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [1];  [1];  [4];  [4];  [3];  [5];  [1]
  1. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  2. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (United States)
  3. Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  4. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  5. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)

We report measurements of optical absorption in the zigzag antiferromagnet α-RuCl3 as a function of temperature T , magnetic field B , and photon energy ℏ ω in the range ~ 0.3 –8.3 meV, using time-domain terahertz spectroscopy. Polarized measurements show that threefold rotational symmetry is broken in the honeycomb plane from 2 to 300 K. We find a sharp absorption peak at 2.56 meV upon cooling below the Néel temperature of 7 K at B = 0 that we identify as the magnetic-dipole excitation of a zero-wave-vector magnon, or antiferromagnetic resonance (AFMR). With the application of B , the AFMR broadens and shifts to a lower frequency as long-range magnetic order is lost in a manner consistent with transitioning to a spin-disordered phase. From a direct, internally calibrated measurement of the AFMR spectral weight, we place an upper bound on the contribution to the dc susceptibility from a magnetic excitation continuum.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1412040
Journal Information:
Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 22 Vol. 119; ISSN 0031-9007; ISSN PRLTAO
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (60)

Fundamental optical properties of α-RuCl3 journal February 1979
Fault-tolerant quantum computation by anyons journal January 2003
Anyons in an exactly solved model and beyond journal January 2006
Two-dimensional gas of massless Dirac fermions in graphene journal November 2005
Spin liquids in frustrated magnets journal March 2010
Fractionalized excitations in the spin-liquid state of a kagome-lattice antiferromagnet journal December 2012
Atomic-scale observation of structural and electronic orders in the layered compound α-RuCl3 journal December 2016
Realization of a three-dimensional spin–anisotropic harmonic honeycomb iridate journal June 2014
Low-energy electrodynamics of novel spin excitations in the quantum spin ice Yb2Ti2O7 journal September 2014
Proximate Kitaev quantum spin liquid behaviour in a honeycomb magnet journal April 2016
Direct evidence for dominant bond-directional interactions in a honeycomb lattice iridate Na2IrO3 journal May 2015
Quantum magnetism and criticality journal March 2008
Breakdown of magnons in a strongly spin-orbital coupled magnet journal October 2017
Kitaev exchange and field-induced quantum spin-liquid states in honeycomb α-RuCl3 journal November 2016
Antiferromagnetic Resonance in CoCl 2 and FeCl 2 journal March 1965
Antiferromagentic resonance detected by direct current voltages in MnF 2 /Pt bilayers journal December 2015
Quantum spin liquids: a review journal November 2016
Theory of Antiferromagnetic Resonance journal January 1952
Simple theory of microwave absorption in alkali halides journal December 1982
Frequency-dependent conductivity of electron glasses journal January 2004
Electronic orbital currents and polarization in Mott insulators journal July 2008
Long-range magnetic ordering in Na 2 IrO 3 journal June 2011
Mechanisms for sub-gap optical conductivity in Herbertsmithite journal June 2013
Local magnetism and spin correlations in the geometrically frustrated cluster magnet LiZn 2 Mo 3 O 8 journal February 2014
α − RuCl 3 : A spin-orbit assisted Mott insulator on a honeycomb lattice journal July 2014
Magnetic order in α − RuCl 3 : A honeycomb-lattice quantum magnet with strong spin-orbit coupling journal April 2015
Kitaev magnetism in honeycomb RuCl 3 with intermediate spin-orbit coupling journal June 2015
Dynamics of fractionalization in quantum spin liquids journal September 2015
Monoclinic crystal structure of α − RuCl 3 and the zigzag antiferromagnetic ground state journal December 2015
Low-temperature crystal and magnetic structure of α − RuCl 3 journal April 2016
Incommensurate counterrotating magnetic order stabilized by Kitaev interactions in the layered honeycomb α − Li 2 IrO 3 journal May 2016
Phase diagram of α − RuCl 3 in an in-plane magnetic field journal May 2017
Mott Insulators in the Strong Spin-Orbit Coupling Limit: From Heisenberg to a Quantum Compass and Kitaev Models journal January 2009
Kitaev-Heisenberg Model on a Honeycomb Lattice: Possible Exotic Phases in Iridium Oxides A 2 IrO 3 journal July 2010
Spin Waves and Revised Crystal Structure of Honeycomb Iridate Na 2 IrO 3 journal March 2012
Spin-Induced Optical Conductivity in the Spin-Liquid Candidate Herbertsmithite journal September 2013
Direct Determination of Exchange Parameters in Cs 2 CuBr 4 and Cs 2 CuCl 4 : High-Field Electron-Spin-Resonance Studies journal February 2014
Dynamics of a Two-Dimensional Quantum Spin Liquid: Signatures of Emergent Majorana Fermions and Fluxes journal May 2014
Raman Scattering Signatures of Kitaev Spin Liquids in A 2 IrO 3 Iridates with A = Na or Li journal October 2014
Noncoplanar and Counterrotating Incommensurate Magnetic Order Stabilized by Kitaev Interactions in γ − Li 2 IrO 3 journal November 2014
Hyperhoneycomb Iridate β − Li 2 IrO 3 as a Platform for Kitaev Magnetism journal February 2015
Scattering Continuum and Possible Fractionalized Excitations in α − RuCl 3 journal April 2015
Low-Energy Spin Dynamics of the Honeycomb Spin Liquid Beyond the Kitaev Limit journal July 2016
Resonant Inelastic X-Ray Scattering Response of the Kitaev Honeycomb Model journal September 2016
Spin-Wave Excitations Evidencing the Kitaev Interaction in Single Crystalline α − RuCl 3 journal March 2017
Anomalous Thermal Conductivity and Magnetic Torque Response in the Honeycomb Magnet α − RuCl 3 journal May 2017
Evidence for a Field-Induced Quantum Spin Liquid in α - RuCl 3 journal July 2017
Magnetic Excitations and Continuum of a Possibly Field-Induced Quantum Spin Liquid in α − RuCl 3 journal November 2017
Exact Results for Spin Dynamics and Fractionalization in the Kitaev Model journal June 2007
Neutron scattering in the proximate quantum spin liquid α-RuCl 3 journal June 2017
Theory of Antiferromagnetism and Antiferromagnetic Resonance Absorption, I journal June 1951
Neutron scattering in the proximate quantum spin liquid α-RuCl3. text January 2017
Quantum magnetism and criticality text January 2007
Mechanisms for Sub-Gap Optical Conductivity in Herbertsmithite text January 2013
Low-energy Spin Dynamics of the Honeycomb Spin Liquid Beyond the Kitaev Limit text January 2016
Resonant inelastic X-ray scattering response of the Kitaev honeycomb model text January 2016
The Frequency Dependent Conductivity of Electron Glasses text January 2003
Anyons in an exactly solved model and beyond text January 2005
Exact results for spin dynamics and fractionization in the Kitaev Model text January 2006
Fault-tolerant quantum computation by anyons text January 1997

Cited By (28)

Excitations in the field-induced quantum spin liquid state of α-RuCl3 journal February 2018
Dynamical and thermal magnetic properties of the Kitaev spin liquid candidate α-RuCl3 journal January 2020
Concept and realization of Kitaev quantum spin liquids journal March 2019
Sub-gap optical response in the Kitaev spin-liquid candidate α -RuCl 3 journal November 2018
Quasi-degenerate magnetic states in α-RuCl 3 journal December 2018
Heisenberg–Kitaev physics in magnetic fields journal July 2019
Finite field regime for a quantum spin liquid in α − RuCl 3 journal August 2019
Magnetic field-dependent low-energy magnon dynamics in α – RuCl 3 journal August 2019
Terahertz excitations in α − RuC l 3 : Majorana fermions and rigid-plane shear and compression modes journal September 2019
Polarization-resolved Raman spectroscopy of α − RuCl 3 and evidence of room-temperature two-dimensional magnetic scattering journal October 2019
Unconventional spin dynamics in the honeycomb-lattice material α − RuCl 3 : High-field electron spin resonance studies journal December 2017
Quantum spin liquid signatures in Kitaev-like frustrated magnets journal February 2018
Effective model with strong Kitaev interactions for α − RuCl 3 journal April 2018
Dynamics of a quantum spin liquid beyond integrability: The Kitaev-Heisenberg- Γ model in an augmented parton mean-field theory journal April 2018
Pressure-induced dimerization and valence bond crystal formation in the Kitaev-Heisenberg magnet α − RuCl 3 journal June 2018
Robust non-Abelian spin liquid and a possible intermediate phase in the antiferromagnetic Kitaev model with magnetic field journal June 2018
Topological magnons in Kitaev magnets at high fields journal August 2018
Field-induced magnon excitation and in-gap absorption in the Kitaev candidate RuCl 3 journal September 2018
Field evolution of magnons in α − RuCl 3 by high-resolution polarized terahertz spectroscopy journal September 2018
Anisotropic susceptibilities in the honeycomb Kitaev system α − RuCl 3 journal September 2018
Signatures of low-energy fractionalized excitations in α − RuCl 3 from field-dependent microwave absorption journal November 2018
Probing α − RuCl 3 Beyond Magnetic Order: Effects of Temperature and Magnetic Field journal February 2018
Néel Spin-Orbit Torque Driven Antiferromagnetic Resonance in Mn 2 Au Probed by Time-Domain THz Spectroscopy journal June 2018
Sawtooth Torque in Anisotropic j eff = 1 / 2 Magnets: Application to α − RuCl 3 journal May 2019
Proposal to Detect Dark Matter using Axionic Topological Antiferromagnets journal September 2019
Excitations in the field-induced quantum spin liquid state of α-RuCl3 text January 2018
Quantum spin liquid signatures in Kitaev-like frustrated magnets text January 2017
Topological Magnons in Kitaev Magnets at High Fields text January 2018

Similar Records

Field evolution of magnons in α-RuCl3 by high-resolution polarized terahertz spectroscopy
Journal Article · Wed Sep 26 04:00:00 UTC 2018 · Physical Review B · OSTI ID:1562881

Unconventional spin dynamics in the honeycomb-lattice material α-RuCl3 : High-field electron spin resonance studies
Journal Article · Tue Dec 19 04:00:00 UTC 2017 · Physical Review B · OSTI ID:1414677

Finite field regime for a quantum spin liquid in αRuCl3
Journal Article · Mon Aug 12 04:00:00 UTC 2019 · Physical Review B · OSTI ID:1557509