Dresden 2020 – scientific programme

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MA: Fachverband Magnetismus

MA 31: Frustrated Magnets - Strong Spin-Orbit Coupling 1 (joint session TT/MA)

MA 31.2: Talk

Wednesday, March 18, 2020, 10:00–10:15, HSZ 304

Field-induced quantum phase transitions in α-RuCl₃ — •Sebastian Bachus¹, Yoshifumi Tokiwa¹, Vladimir Tsurkan², Alois Loidl², Anton Jesche¹, Alexander A. Tsirlin¹, and Philipp Gegenwart¹ — ¹Experimental Physics VI, Center for Electronic Correlations and Magnetism, University of Augsburg, Germany — ²Experimental Physics V, Center for Electronic Correlations and Magnetism, University of Augsburg, Germany

Recently the observation of a half-integer quantized thermal Hall effect in the Kitaev material α-RuCl₃, possibly indicating chiral Majorana edge modes, attracted considerable attention [1]. It arises in a finite field range exceeding the critical field for long-range antiferromagnetic order. We utilize a high-resolution alternating field method for the precise determination of the truly adiabatic magnetocaloric effect or magnetic Grüneisen parameter down to ∼ 1 K and in magnetic fields up to 15 T. Together with accompanying heat capacity measurements, it allows us to determine the entropy evolution when tuning the system into and out of the presumed topological Kitaev quantum spin liquid regime as a function of the applied field. We present a comprehensive analysis of the thermodynamic data and comparison to [2].

Work supported by the German Science Foundation via Project No. 107745057 (TRR80).

[1] Y. Kashara et al., Nature 559, 227-231 (2018).

[2] C. Balz et al., Phys. Rev. B 100, 060405(R) (2019).