SKM 2023 – scientific programme

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TT: Fachverband Tiefe Temperaturen

TT 52: Frustrated Magnets: Strong Spin-Orbit Coupling

TT 52.4: Talk

Thursday, March 30, 2023, 15:45–16:00, HSZ 201

Rethinking α-RuCl₃ again — •Marius Möller¹, Roser Valentí¹, and Alexander L. Chernyshev² — ¹Institute for Theoretical Physics, Goethe University Frankfurt, Max-von-Laue-Strasse 1, 60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany — ²Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, California 92697, USA

The honeycomb Kitaev material α-RuCl₃ is widely investigated due to its originally suspected proximity to a spin liquid state suggested by unusual neutron scattering results. The magnetic Hamiltonian was initially formulated as a generalized Kitaev model K₁-J₁-Γ₁-Γ₁^′-J₃ in a cubic spin reference orientated along the Ru-Cl bonds. Recent studies, however, suggest that a crystallographic parametrization of the Hamiltonian in a spin-ice-like language J(XY)-Δ-J_±±-J_z±-J₃ could lead to significant reduction of the parameter space, hinting towards a potential minimal model of α-RuCl₃. We present the classical and quantum phase diagram of this J(XY)-J_z±-J₃ minimal model candidate obtained by Luttinger-Tisza method (LT), Exact Diagonalization (ED) and Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG). Further, we present the phase diagrams of three interesting parameter regions with constrained anisotropic exchanges K₁,Γ₁,Γ₁^′ leading to effective J₁-J₃ models which possibly capture the relevant region to describe the essential physics of α-RuCl₃.

M.M. and R.V. gratefully acknowledge funding by the DFG(German Research Foundation): TRR 288 - 422213477; M.M. gratefully acknowledges funding by Studienwerk Villigst.