New Features in the Field-dependent Thermal Conductivity of α-RuCl3 at Low Temperatures

ORAL

Abstract

α-RuCl3 is currently the most promising and well-studied candidate for realizing the unique physics of the Kitaev model. Because the energy scale of the exchange interactions is understood to be quite high (J ~ 100K), measurements at low temperatures have been somewhat scarce and it’s behavior below 2K remains largely unexplored. This is especially true for thermal transport experiments, which have proven to be an incredibly powerful probe of excitations and phase transitions in insulating magnets. We present measurements of the thermal conductivity as a function of temperature and in-plane magnetic field that were performed between 0.4 and 1.7K. We identify several new features in κxx(B) that occur between 7 and 11T, a regime located between the long range ordered and fully polarized states and where spin liquid behavior is thought to occur. Possible explanations for these new features as well as their relation to the recent observation of a half-integer quantized thermal hall conductance will be discussed.

*We acknowledge support from the Department of Energy (DE-SC0017863) and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation's EPiQS Initiative (Grant No. GBMF4539).

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Presenters

  • Peter Czajka

    • Department of Physics, Princeton University

Authors

  • Peter Czajka

    • Department of Physics, Princeton University

  • Tong Gao

    • Department of Physics, Princeton University

  • Jingjing Lin

    • Department of Physics, Princeton University

  • Paula J Kelley

    • University of Tennessee (Knoxville, USA)
    • Oak Ridge National Lab
    • Oak Ridge National Laboratory

  • Arnab Banerjee

    • Oak Ridge National Laboratory
    • Oak Ridge National Lab

  • Christian Balz

    • Oak Ridge National Laboratory (USA)
    • Oak Ridge National Laboratory

  • Jiaqiang Yan

    • Oak Ridge National Laboratory (USA)
    • Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
    • Oak Ridge National Laboratory
    • Materials Science and Technology, Materials Science and Technology
    • Oak Ridge National Lab
    • Materials Science and Engineering, The University of Tennessee

  • David George Mandrus

    • Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, USA
    • University of Tennessee-Knoxville
    • Oak Ridge National Lab
    • Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Tennessee
    • University of Tennessee (Knoxville, USA)
    • Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Tennessee Knoxville
    • Department of Material Science & Engineering, University of Tennessee
    • Material Science and Engineering, University of Tennessee
    • Materials Science and Technology, Materials Science and Technology
    • University of Tennessee, Knoxville
    • Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The University of Tennessee
    • Materials Science and Engineering, The University of Tennessee
    • Oak Ridge National Laboratory
    • Department of Material Science and Engineering, University of Tennessee

  • Stephen Nagler

    • Oak Ridge National Laboratory (USA)
    • Oak Ridge National Laboratory
    • Oak Ridge National Lab
    • Neutron Scattering Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

  • Nai-Phuan Ong

    • Princeton University
    • Department of Physics, Princeton University