Thermal Hall effect in the quantum spin liquid candidate α-RuCl<sub>3</sub>

ORAL

Abstract

Kasahara et al. have reported the observation of a quantized thermal Hall conductivity κxy in the Kitaev spin-liquid candidate α-RuCl3 at low temperature, when antiferromagnetic order is suppressed with an in-plane magnetic field [1]. The reported magnitude of κxy / T is consistent with the quantized value expected from topologically protected chiral edge currents of charge-neutral Majorana fermions [2]. If confirmed, this is a major advance in the physics of quantum spin liquids.
Given that the magnitude of both κxy and the longitudinal thermal conductivity κxx varies greatly from sample to sample [3,4], we report further measurements of heat transport in α-RuCl3, with the aim of shedding light on the factors responsible for this considerable variability.

[1] Kasahara et al., Nature 559, 227 (2018).
[2] Nasu et al., PRL 119, 127204 (2017).
[3] Kasahara et al., PRL 120, 217205 (2018).
[4] Hentrich et al., arXiv:1803.08162 (2018).

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Presenters

  • Etienne Lefrancois

    • University of Sherbrooke (Canada)

Authors

  • Etienne Lefrancois

    • University of Sherbrooke (Canada)

  • Gael Grissonnanche

    • University of Sherbrooke (Canada)
    • Physics, Université de Sherbrooke
    • Universite de Sherbrooke (Canada)

  • Paula J Kelley

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

  • 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

  • Louis Taillefer

    • University of Sherbrooke (Canada)
    • Université de Sherbrooke, Canada
    • Physics, Université de Sherbrooke
    • Universite de Sherbrooke
    • Universite de Sherbrooke (Canada)