Thermal Hall effect in the quantum spin liquid candidate α-RuCl3

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)