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    Pressure-induced dimerization and valence bond crystal formation in the Kitaev-Heisenberg magnet α-RuCl3
    (College Park, MD : American Physical Society, 2018) Bastien, G.; Garbarino, G.; Yadav, R.; Martinez-Casado, F.J.; Beltrán, Rodríguez, R.; Stahl, Q.; Kusch, M.; Limandri, S.P.; Ray, R.; Lampen-Kelley, P.; Mandrus, D.G.; Nagler, S.E.; Roslova, M.; Isaeva, A.; Doert, T.; Hozoi, L.; Wolter, A.U.B.; Büchner, B.; Geck, J.; Van Den Brink, J.
    Magnetization and high-resolution x-ray diffraction measurements of the Kitaev-Heisenberg material α-RuCl3 reveal a pressure-induced crystallographic and magnetic phase transition at a hydrostatic pressure of p∼0.2 GPa. This structural transition into a triclinic phase is characterized by a very strong dimerization of the Ru-Ru bonds, accompanied by a collapse of the magnetic susceptibility. Ab initio quantum-chemistry calculations disclose a pressure-induced enhancement of the direct 4d-4d bonding on particular Ru-Ru links, causing a sharp increase of the antiferromagnetic exchange interactions. These combined experimental and computational data show that the Kitaev spin-liquid phase in α-RuCl3 strongly competes with the crystallization of spin singlets into a valence bond solid.
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    Spin-glass state and reversed magnetic anisotropy induced by Cr doping in the Kitaev magnet α-RuCl3
    (College Park, MD : American Physical Society, 2019) Bastien, G.; Roslova, M.; Haghighi, M.H.; Mehlawat, K.; Hunger, J.; Isaeva, A.; Doert, T.; Vojta, M.; Büchner, B.; Wolter, A.U.B.
    Magnetic properties of the substitution series Ru1-xCrxCl3 were investigated to determine the evolution from the anisotropic Kitaev magnet α-RuCl3 with Jeff=1/2 magnetic Ru3+ ions to the isotropic Heisenberg magnet CrCl3 with S=3/2 magnetic Cr3+ ions. Magnetization measurements on single crystals revealed a reversal of the magnetic anisotropy under doping, which we argue to arise from the competition between anisotropic Kitaev and off-diagonal interactions on the Ru-Ru links and approximately isotropic Cr-Ru and isotropic Cr-Cr interactions. In addition, combined magnetization, ac susceptibility, and specific-heat measurements clearly show the destabilization of the long-range magnetic order of α-RuCl3 in favor of a spin-glass state of Ru1-xCrxCl3 for a low doping of x≤0.1. The corresponding freezing temperature as a function of Cr content shows a broad maximum around x ≤ 0.45.
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    Weak-coupling superconductivity in a strongly correlated iron pnictide
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2016) Charnukha, A.; Post, K.W.; Thirupathaiah, S.; Pröpper, D.; Wurmehl, S.; Roslova, M.; Morozov, I.; Büchner, B.; Yaresko, A.N.
    Iron-based superconductors have been found to exhibit an intimate interplay of orbital, spin, and lattice degrees of freedom, dramatically affecting their low-energy electronic properties, including superconductivity. Albeit the precise pairing mechanism remains unidentified, several candidate interactions have been suggested to mediate the superconducting pairing, both in the orbital and in the spin channel. Here, we employ optical spectroscopy (OS), angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), ab initio band-structure, and Eliashberg calculations to show that nearly optimally doped NaFe0.978Co0.022As exhibits some of the strongest orbitally selective electronic correlations in the family of iron pnictides. Unexpectedly, we find that the mass enhancement of itinerant charge carriers in the strongly correlated band is dramatically reduced near the Γ point and attribute this effect to orbital mixing induced by pronounced spin-orbit coupling. Embracing the true band structure allows us to describe all low-energy electronic properties obtained in our experiments with remarkable consistency and demonstrate that superconductivity in this material is rather weak and mediated by spin fluctuations.