Magnetic anisotropy reversal driven by structural symmetry-breaking in monolayer α-RuCl3

Bowen Yang, Yin Min Goh, Suk Hyun Sung, Gaihua Ye, Sananda Biswas, David A.S. Kaib, Ramesh Dhakal, Shaohua Yan, Chenghe Li, Shengwei Jiang, Fangchu Chen, Hechang Lei, Rui He, Roser Valentí, Stephen M. Winter, Robert Hovden, Adam W. Tsen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

Layered α-RuCl3 is a promising material to potentially realize the long-sought Kitaev quantum spin liquid with fractionalized excitations. While evidence of this state has been reported under a modest in-plane magnetic field, such behaviour is largely inconsistent with theoretical expectations of spin liquid phases emerging only in out-of-plane fields. These predicted field-induced states have been largely out of reach due to the strong easy-plane anisotropy of bulk crystals, however. We use a combination of tunnelling spectroscopy, magnetotransport, electron diffraction and ab initio calculations to study the layer-dependent magnons, magnetic anisotropy, structure and exchange coupling in atomically thin samples. Due to picoscale distortions, the sign of the average off-diagonal exchange changes in monolayer α-RuCl3, leading to a reversal of spin anisotropy to easy-axis anisotropy, while the Kitaev interaction is concomitantly enhanced. Our work opens the door to the possible exploration of Kitaev physics in the true two-dimensional limit.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)50-57
Number of pages8
JournalNature Materials
Volume22
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2023

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