Bulk excitations in ultraclean $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$: Quantitative evidence for Majorana dispersions in a Kitaev quantum spin liquid

TL;DR

This study provides strong evidence for Majorana quasiparticles in ultraclean $ ext{RuCl}_3$, demonstrating anisotropic bulk excitations and Dirac-like dispersions consistent with theoretical predictions of a Kitaev quantum spin liquid state.

Contribution

It offers the first quantitative experimental evidence of Majorana dispersions in ultraclean $ ext{RuCl}_3$, confirming the robustness of the Kitaev quantum spin liquid state against disorder.

Findings

Observation of an anisotropic excitation gap consistent with Majorana gap.

Detection of gapless Dirac-like excitations aligned with bond directions.

Quantitative match between experimental dispersions and theoretical Majorana bands.

Abstract

The spin-orbit coupled Mott insulator $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$ has emerged as a prime candidate for realizing the Kitaev quantum spin liquid (KQSL), characterized by Majorana quasiparticles, whose edge states exhibit a distinctive half-integer quantized thermal Hall conductivity. However, its van der Waals nature makes its thermal Hall response highly sensitive to structural disorder, leading to sample-dependent variations. Here, we investigate low-energy bulk excitations in the field-induced quantum disordered (FIQD) state of newly available ultraclean single crystals of $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$. High-resolution specific heat measurements under in-plane magnetic field rotation reveal an anisotropic excitation gap, whose field dependence is consistent with the Majorana gap in the KQSL state. Remarkably, when the field aligns with Ru-Ru bond directions, we observe gapless excitations with Dirac-like dispersions that quantitatively match theoretical predictions of Majorana bands based on the reported Kitaev interactions. Our findings in these ultraclean crystals provide strong evidence that the FIQD state of $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$ is a robust KQSL, resilient against small disorder perturbations.