Dielectric measurements probe stacking faults in α-RuCl₃
Crystals with different amounts of stacking disorder showed distinct dielectric and magnetic responses.
Xinrun Mi, Xiao Wang and colleagues compared the out-of-plane dielectric response of α-RuCl₃ crystals with different degrees of stacking disorder. Some samples exhibited a frequency-dependent anomaly near 4 K. The authors attributed it to possible local polarization where stacking faults break inversion symmetry.
Crystals with few faults also exhibited a field-induced intermediate phase for a particular field direction. The study involved Chongqing University, the Jülich Centre for Neutron Science and SUSTech; SUSTech coauthors included Peipei Wang and Liyuan Zhang.