Detuning the Honeycomb of the α-RuCl Kitaev Lattice: A Case of Cr Dopant.

Fine-tuning chemistry by doping with transition metals enables new perspectives for exploring Kitaev physics on a two-dimensional (2D) honeycomb lattice of α-RuCl, which is promising in the field of quantum information protection and quantum computation. The key parameters to vary by doping are both Heisenberg and Kitaev components of the nearest-neighbor exchange interaction between the J = / Ru spins, depending strongly on the peculiarities of the crystal structure. Here, we present crystal growth by chemical vapor transport and structure elucidation of a solid solution series RuCr Cl (0 ≤ x ≤ 1), with Cr ions coupled to the Ru Kitaev host.