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arXiv · 2409.08854

Direct evidence for anisotropic magnetic interaction in $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$ from polarized inelastic neutron scattering

Markus Braden·Xiao Wang·Alexandre Bertin·Paul Steffens·Yixi Su
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Abstract

Polarized neutron scattering experiments reveal the anisotropy of magnetic correlations in the candidate Kitaev material $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$. The anisotropy of the inelastic response at the magnetic Bragg positions is just opposite to the expectation for a simple Heisenberg model. Near the antiferromagnetic $q$ vector, there are no low-energy transversal magnon modes directly documenting the fully anisotropic and bond-directional character of the magnetic interaction in $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$. However, other findings disagree with a simple or strongly dominant Kitaev component.

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Markus Braden, Xiao Wang, Alexandre Bertin, Paul Steffens, Yixi Su. 2024-09-13. Direct evidence for anisotropic magnetic interaction in $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$ from polarized inelastic neutron scattering. https://doi.org/10.1103/vlzq-swfm

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