Origin of oscillatory structures in the magnetothermal conductivity of the putative Kitaev magnet $α$-RuCl$_3$

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Bruin, J. A. N., Claus, R. R., Matsumoto, Y., Nuss, J., Laha, S., Lotsch, B. V., Kurita, N., Tanaka, H., Takagi, H.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2022
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author Bruin, J. A. N.
Claus, R. R.
Matsumoto, Y.
Nuss, J.
Laha, S.
Lotsch, B. V.
Kurita, N.
Tanaka, H.
Takagi, H.
author_facet Bruin, J. A. N.
Claus, R. R.
Matsumoto, Y.
Nuss, J.
Laha, S.
Lotsch, B. V.
Kurita, N.
Tanaka, H.
Takagi, H.
contents The layered honeycomb magnet $α$-RuCl$_3$ has been suggested to exhibit a field-induced quantum spin liquid state, in which the reported large thermal Hall effect close to the half-quantized value still remains a subject of debate. Recently, oscillatory structures of the magnetothermal conductivity were reported and interpreted as quantum oscillations of charge-neutral particles. To investigate the origin of these oscillatory structures, we performed a comprehensive measurement of the in-plane magnetothermal conductivity $κ(H)$ down to low temperature (100 mK), as well as magnetization $M$, for single crystals grown by two different techniques: Bridgman and chemical vapor transport. The results show a series of dips in $κ(H)$ and peaks in the field derivative of $M$ located at the same fields independent of the growth method. We argue that these structures originate from field-induced phase transitions rather than quantum oscillations. The positions of several of these features are temperature-dependent and connected to the magnetic phase transitions in zero field: the main transition at 7 K and weaker additional transitions which likely arise from secondary phases at 10 K and 13 K. In contrast to what is expected for quantum oscillations, the magnitude of the structure in $κ(H)$ is smaller for the higher conductivity crystal and decreases rapidly upon cooling below 1 K.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2205_15839
institution arXiv
publishDate 2022
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Origin of oscillatory structures in the magnetothermal conductivity of the putative Kitaev magnet $α$-RuCl$_3$
Bruin, J. A. N.
Claus, R. R.
Matsumoto, Y.
Nuss, J.
Laha, S.
Lotsch, B. V.
Kurita, N.
Tanaka, H.
Takagi, H.
Strongly Correlated Electrons
The layered honeycomb magnet $α$-RuCl$_3$ has been suggested to exhibit a field-induced quantum spin liquid state, in which the reported large thermal Hall effect close to the half-quantized value still remains a subject of debate. Recently, oscillatory structures of the magnetothermal conductivity were reported and interpreted as quantum oscillations of charge-neutral particles. To investigate the origin of these oscillatory structures, we performed a comprehensive measurement of the in-plane magnetothermal conductivity $κ(H)$ down to low temperature (100 mK), as well as magnetization $M$, for single crystals grown by two different techniques: Bridgman and chemical vapor transport. The results show a series of dips in $κ(H)$ and peaks in the field derivative of $M$ located at the same fields independent of the growth method. We argue that these structures originate from field-induced phase transitions rather than quantum oscillations. The positions of several of these features are temperature-dependent and connected to the magnetic phase transitions in zero field: the main transition at 7 K and weaker additional transitions which likely arise from secondary phases at 10 K and 13 K. In contrast to what is expected for quantum oscillations, the magnitude of the structure in $κ(H)$ is smaller for the higher conductivity crystal and decreases rapidly upon cooling below 1 K.
title Origin of oscillatory structures in the magnetothermal conductivity of the putative Kitaev magnet $α$-RuCl$_3$
topic Strongly Correlated Electrons
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.15839