Electrical Transport Signature of the Magnetic Fluctuation-Structure Relation in α-RuCl₃ Nanoflakes

The small gap semiconductor α-RuCl₃ has emerged as a promising candidate for quantum spin liquid materials. Thus far, Raman spectroscopy, neutron scattering, and magnetization measurements have provided valuable hints for collective spin behavior in α-RuCl₃ bulk crystals. However, the goal of implementing α-RuCl₃ into spintronic devices would strongly benefit from the possibility of electrically probing these phenomena. To address this, we first investigated nanoflakes of α-RuCl₃ by Raman spectroscopy and observed similar behavior as in the case of the bulk material, including the signatures of possible fractionalized excitations. In complementary experiments, we investigated the electrical charge transport properties of individual α-RuCl₃ nanoflakes in the temperature range between 120 and 290 K. The observed temperature-dependent electrical resistivity is consistent with variable range hopping behavior and exhibits a transition at about 180 K, close to the onset temperature observed in our Raman measurements. In conjunction with the established relation between structure and magnetism in the bulk, we interpret this transition to coincide with the emergence of fractionalized excitations due to the Kitaev interactions in the nanoflakes. Compared to the bulk samples, the transition temperature of the underlying structural change is larger in the nanoflakes. This difference is tentatively attributed to the dimensionality of the nanoflakes as well as the formation of stacking faults during mechanical exfoliation. The demonstrated devices open up novel perspectives toward manipulating the Kitaev-phase in α-RuCl₃ via electrical means.