Field dependence of THz spectra of effective models for α -RuCl3

Abstract

We calculate polarized terahertz (THz) spectra of two effective models for a honeycomb-lattice magnet α-RuCl3 by using a numerical exact-diagonalization method. One of the two models is the ab initio model proposed in H.-S. Kim and H.-Y. Kee [Phys. Rev. B 93, 155143 (2016)] and the other is the large-|K| model that we have proposed by an empirical way in order to explain experimental results for α-RuCl3. We discuss the magnetic-field dependence of the lowest-excitation mode in the polarized THz spectra for the two models. We find that the energy gap of the lowest-excitation mode in both models does not close and increases almost linearly above the critical field, where the zigzag order is suppressed. From the obtained results, we point out that the low-energy excitation is mainly governed not by the Kitaev interaction but by the Heisenberg interaction and the off-diagonal interactions.