Tilted and Twisted Magnetic Moments in the Kitaev Magnet $α$-RuCl$_3$
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arXiv
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| Autori principali: | , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Natura: | Preprint |
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2026
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| _version_ | 1866914432652673024 |
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| author | Wang, Xiao Zhu, Fengfeng Braden, Markus Schmalzl, Karin Schmidt, Wolfgang Meven, Martin Feng, Erxi Zhu, Yinghao Bertin, Alexandre Steffens, Paul Su, Yixi |
| author_facet | Wang, Xiao Zhu, Fengfeng Braden, Markus Schmalzl, Karin Schmidt, Wolfgang Meven, Martin Feng, Erxi Zhu, Yinghao Bertin, Alexandre Steffens, Paul Su, Yixi |
| contents | The layered honeycomb magnet $α$-RuCl$_3$ has attracted intense scrutiny as a prime candidate for realizing the Kitaev quantum spin liquid, yet a consensus on its microscopic Hamiltonian remains elusive due to the material's extreme sensitivity to structural details. Here, we report a comprehensive reexamination of the low-temperature crystallographic and magnetic structures of high-quality $α$-RuCl$_3$ single crystals using unpolarized and polarized neutron diffraction. We confirm a sharp, first-order structural phase transition to the rhombohedral $R\bar{3}$ space group with a pronounced thermal hysteresis. Crucially, using both spherical and longitudinal neutron polarization analysis, we determine the 3D orientation of the ordered magnetic moment without the ambiguity typically arising from domain distributions. We find that the Ru$^{3+}$ magnetic moments in the zigzag phase are tilted by $15.7^\circ$ out of the hexagonal plane and, remarkably, exhibit an additional in-plane twist of $-13.8^\circ$. This "tilted and twisted" geometry differentiates the ground state from the previously reported models based on unpolarized neutron diffraction or resonant elastic X-ray scattering (REXS) analysis. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_28146 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Tilted and Twisted Magnetic Moments in the Kitaev Magnet $α$-RuCl$_3$ Wang, Xiao Zhu, Fengfeng Braden, Markus Schmalzl, Karin Schmidt, Wolfgang Meven, Martin Feng, Erxi Zhu, Yinghao Bertin, Alexandre Steffens, Paul Su, Yixi Strongly Correlated Electrons Materials Science The layered honeycomb magnet $α$-RuCl$_3$ has attracted intense scrutiny as a prime candidate for realizing the Kitaev quantum spin liquid, yet a consensus on its microscopic Hamiltonian remains elusive due to the material's extreme sensitivity to structural details. Here, we report a comprehensive reexamination of the low-temperature crystallographic and magnetic structures of high-quality $α$-RuCl$_3$ single crystals using unpolarized and polarized neutron diffraction. We confirm a sharp, first-order structural phase transition to the rhombohedral $R\bar{3}$ space group with a pronounced thermal hysteresis. Crucially, using both spherical and longitudinal neutron polarization analysis, we determine the 3D orientation of the ordered magnetic moment without the ambiguity typically arising from domain distributions. We find that the Ru$^{3+}$ magnetic moments in the zigzag phase are tilted by $15.7^\circ$ out of the hexagonal plane and, remarkably, exhibit an additional in-plane twist of $-13.8^\circ$. This "tilted and twisted" geometry differentiates the ground state from the previously reported models based on unpolarized neutron diffraction or resonant elastic X-ray scattering (REXS) analysis. |
| title | Tilted and Twisted Magnetic Moments in the Kitaev Magnet $α$-RuCl$_3$ |
| topic | Strongly Correlated Electrons Materials Science |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.28146 |