ISIS Neutron and Muon Source Data Journal

Local crystal and magnetic structure study on quantum spin liquid RuCl3 by neutron total scattering

Abstract: Quantum Spin Liquid (QSL) is an exotic state of matter without long-range magnetic order of spins even down to the lowest temperatures. The honeycomb alpha-RuCl3 is a proposed candidate for the Kitaev QSL. However, certain magnetic orders were observed in RuCl3 below the temperature of ~14 K, which caused a contradiction to the theory of ideal Kitaev model. Since the magnetic Hanmiltonian strongly depends on the local crystal structure and bond angles, we herein propose to investigate the details of local structure in alpha-RuCl3 by neutron total scattering combined with reverse Monte Carlo modelling. Moreover, the magnetic signals contained in the total scattering data can be used to further observe possible short range magnetic orders by magnetic pair distribution function method, which will lead to a deeper and complete understanding of magnetic interactions in this material.

Principal Investigator: Dr Wojciech Slawinski
Local Contact: Dr Helen Playford
Experimenter: Dr Cheng Yang

DOI: 10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2000186

ISIS Experiment Number: RB2000186

Publisher: STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source

Data format: RAW/Nexus
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Data Citation

The recommended format for citing this dataset in a research publication is as:
[author], [date], [title], [publisher], [doi]

For Example:
Dr Wojciech Slawinski et al; (2020): Local crystal and magnetic structure study on quantum spin liquid RuCl3 by neutron total scattering, STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, https://doi.org/10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2000186

Data is released under the CC-BY-4.0 license.