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arXiv · 2403.04176

Re-investigation of Moment Direction in a Kitaev Material $\alpha$-RuCl$_{3}$

Subin Kim·Ezekiel Horsley·Christie Nelson·Jacob Ruff·Young-June Kim
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Abstract

We report X-ray diffraction and resonant elastic X-ray scattering (REXS) studies on two $\alpha$-RuCl$_{3}$ crystals with distinct magnetic transition temperatures: T$_{N}$=7.3K and 6.5K. We find that the sample with T$_{N}$=6.5K exhibits a high degree of structural twinning at low temperature, whereas the T$_{N}$=7.3K sample primarily comprises a single domain of R$\bar{3}$. Notwithstanding, both samples exhibit an identical zigzag magnetic structure, with magnetic moments pointing away from the honeycomb plane by $\alpha=31(2)^{\circ}$. We argue that the identical ordered moment directions in these samples suggest that the intralayer magnetic Hamiltonian remains mostly unchanged regardless of T$_{N}$.

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Subin Kim, Ezekiel Horsley, Christie Nelson, Jacob Ruff, Young-June Kim. 2024-03-07. Re-investigation of Moment Direction in a Kitaev Material $\alpha$-RuCl$_{3}$. https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.04176

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