Re-investigation of moment direction in a Kitaev material α -RuCl 3
Abstract We report x-ray diffraction and resonant elastic x-ray scattering studies on two α -RuCl 3 crystals with distinct magnetic transition temperatures: T N = 7.3 K and 6.5 K. We find that the sample with T N = 6.5 K exhibits a high degree of stacking faults and structural twinning at low temperature, whereas the T N = 7.3 K sample primarily comprises a single domain of R 3 ¯ . Notwithstanding, both samples exhibit an identical zigzag magnetic structure, with magnetic moments pointing away from the honeycomb plane by α = 31 ( 2 ) ∘ . We argue that the identical ordered moment directions in these samples suggest that the intralayer magnetic interactions remain mostly unchanged regardless of T N .
2D magnetism↗