English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Zendy Plus

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Zendy Tools

Zendy Open

We study the field-induced magnetization processes of extendedHeisenberg-Kitaev models on the honeycomb lattice, taking into accountoff-diagonal and longer-range exchange interactions, using a combination ofMonte-Carlo simulations, classical energy minimization, and spin-wave theory.We consider a number of different parameter sets, previously proposed todescribe the magnetic behavior of $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$ and Na$_2$IrO$_3$ withtheir antiferromagnetic zigzag ground states. By classifying these parametersets, we reveal the existence of three distinct mechanisms to stabilize zigzagstates, which differ in the sign of the nearest-neighbor Kitaev interaction,the role of longer-range interactions, and the magnitude of the off-diagonal$\Gamma_1$ interaction. While experimentally hardly distinguishable at zerofield, we find that the three different scenarios lead to significantlydifferent magnetization processes in applied magnetic fields. In particular, weshow that a sizable off-diagonal interaction $\Gamma_1 > 0$ naturally explainsthe strongly anisotropic field responses observed in $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$ withoutthe need for a strong anisotropy in the effective $g$ tensor. Moreover, for ageneric field direction, it leads to a high-field state with a finitetransversal magnetization, which should be observable in $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$.

Magnetization processes of zigzag states on the honeycomb lattice: Identifying spin models for $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$ and Na$_2$IrO$_3$