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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Resonant inelastic x-ray scattering from electronic excitations in α−RuCl3 nanolayers

Zichen Yang1, Lichen Wang1, Dong Zhao1, Mingdi Luo1, Sourav Laha1,*, Achim Güth1, Takashi Taniguchi2, Kenji Watanabe2, Bettina V. Lotsch1 et al.

Jurgen H. Smet1, Matteo Minola1, Hlynur Gretarsson3, and Bernhard Keimer1,†

  • 1Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Heisenbergstrasse 1, D-70569 Stuttgart, Germany
  • 2National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba 305-0044, Japan
  • 3Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Notkestraße 85, D-22607 Hamburg, Germany

  • *Present address: Department of Chemistry, National Institute of Technology Durgapur, Mahatma Gandhi Avenue, Durgapur-713209, India.
  • †B.Keimer@fkf.mpg.de
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Phys. Rev. B 108, L041406 – Published 27 July, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.108.L041406

Abstract

We present Ru L3-edge resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) measurements of spin-orbit and d−d excitations in exfoliated nanolayers of the Kitaev spin-liquid candidate RuCl3. Whereas the spin-orbit excitations are independent of thickness, we observe a pronounced redshift and broadening of the d−d excitations in layers with thicknesses below ∼7 nm. Aided by model calculations, we attribute these effects to distortions of the RuCl6 octahedra near the surface. Our study paves the way towards RIXS investigations of electronic excitations in various other two-dimensional materials and heterostructures.

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Phys. Rev. B 108, L041406– Published 27 July, 2023
  • Received 7 March 2023
  • Accepted 29 June 2023
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. Open access publication funded by the Max Planck Society.

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