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QUANTUM MAGNETISM

Spin liquid evidence at the edge and in bulk

Nature Physics volume 18, pages 378–379 (2022)Cite this article

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Hopes for a topological spin liquid phase in ruthenium trichloride have been previously raised by evidence of Majorana modes at the material’s edges. Transport and bulk thermodynamic measurements now strengthen the case for Majorana fermions.

The initial report of a half-quantized plateau from the same research group as Tanaka and co-workers3 sparked off a tremendous wave of further research on Kitaev physics, thermal Hall effect, and α-RuCl3 in particular. Key questions to these initial results were the reproducibility of the plateau, particularly its value, and whether there is any further evidence that Kitaev’s model describes the physics of α-RuCl3. Bruin and co-workers deliver a clear perspective on the first—their data confirm a robust thermal Hall plateau over considerable temperature and magnetic field ranges.

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Fig. 1: Connection between the magnetic field angle ϕ, Majorana gap ΔM, and Majorana fermion edge current in the Kitaev model.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Solid State Research, Leibniz IFW Dresden, Dresden, Germany

    Anja U. B. Wolter & Christian Hess

  2. Fakultät für Mathematik und Naturwissenschaften, Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Wuppertal, Germany

    Christian Hess

Authors
  1. Anja U. B. Wolter
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  2. Christian Hess
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Correspondence to Anja U. B. Wolter or Christian Hess.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Wolter, A.U.B., Hess, C. Spin liquid evidence at the edge and in bulk. Nat. Phys. 18, 378–379 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-022-01521-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-022-01521-2

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