Observation of single antiferromagnetic magnon modes in the tunnelling transistors of spin-1/2 Kitaev system a-RuCl3

TL;DR

This study reports the observation of single antiferromagnetic magnon modes in atomically thin a-RuCl3 tunnelling transistors, providing electrical evidence of magnetic order and excitations relevant to quantum spin liquids.

Contribution

First electrical detection of single magnon modes in thin a-RuCl3 films, confirming magnetic order signatures in tunnelling devices.

Findings

Observation of inelastic scattering features below Neel temperature

Electrical confirmation of zigzag antiferromagnetic order signatures

Detection of single magnon modes in atomically thin films

Abstract

The small gap room temperature semiconductor a-RuCl3 which is known to undergo a Mott-Hubbard transition at low temperatures, is one of the most promising candidates for realisation of an exotic matter form, the quantum spin liquid state, which may have applications in quantum computing. Although being extensively investigated by neutron scattering techniques, electronic study of this system in form of van der Waals heterostructures has been limited to mainly graphene proximity. Here we report a systematic study of planar and tunnelling electronic properties of a -RuCl3 films, where we observe an n-type semiconducting property of a -RuCl3 films at room temperature, with a Mott insulator nature onset below 120K. In constant some of the previous studies, we focus on films of three-layer thickness and below and we find inelastic scattering features, below the Neel temperature of 7-14.5 K, some of which we attribute to single magnon modes. We believe our study electrically confirms preserved low temperature signatures of the bulk zigzag antiferromagnetic order and its single magnon modes within the previously observed continuum in atomically thin film limit. The experimental progress could be a step for future electronic characterisation of quantum spin liquid state in the vicinity of the zigzag antiferromagnetic order as well as the Majorona excitations in a-RuCl3 in tunnelling transistors.