Field-induced quantum criticality in the Kitaev system alpha-RuCl3
- Authors
- Wolter, A. U. B.; Corredor, L. T.; Janssen, L.; Nenkov, K.; Schonecker, S.; Do, S.-H.; Choi, K.-Y.; Albrecht, R.; Hunger, J.; Doert, T.; Vojta, M.; Buechner, B.
- Issue Date
- Jul-2017
- Publisher
- AMER PHYSICAL SOC
- Citation
- PHYSICAL REVIEW B, v.96, no.4
- Journal Title
- PHYSICAL REVIEW B
- Volume
- 96
- Number
- 4
- URI
- https://scholarworks.bwise.kr/cau/handle/2019.sw.cau/4218
- DOI
- 10.1103/PhysRevB.96.041405
- ISSN
- 2469-9950
2469-9969
- Abstract
- alpha-magnetic excitations akin to Kitaev's honeycomb-lattice spin liquid. We have performed a detailed specific-heat investigation at temperatures down to 0.4 K in applied magnetic fields up to 9 T for fields parallel to the ab plane. We find a suppression of the zero-field antiferromagnetic order, together with an increase of the low-temperature specific heat, with increasing field up to mu H-0(c) approximate to 6.9 T. Above H-c, the magnetic contribution to the low-temperature specific heat is strongly suppressed, implying the opening of a spin-excitation gap. Our data point toward a field-induced quantum critical point at H-c; this is supported by universal scaling behavior near H-c. Remarkably, the data also reveal the existence of a small characteristic energy scale well below 1 meV, above which the excitation spectrum changes qualitatively. We relate the data to theoretical calculations based on a J(1)-K-1-Gamma(1)-J(3) honeycomb model.
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Collections - College of Natural Sciences > Department of Physics > 1. Journal Articles
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