Atomic-scale observation of structural and electronic orders in the layered compound α-RuCl3

A pseudospin-1/2 Mott phase on a honeycomb lattice is proposed to host the celebrated two-dimensional Kitaev model which has an elusive quantum spin liquid ground state, and fascinating physics relevant to the development of future templates towards topological quantum bits. Here we report a comprehensive, atomically resolved real-space study by scanning transmission electron and scanning tunnelling microscopies on a novel layered material displaying Kitaev physics, alpha-RuCl3. Our local crystallography analysis reveals considerable variations in the geometry of the ligand sublattice in thin films of alpha-RuCl3 that opens a way to realization of a spatially inhomogeneous magnetic ground state at the nanometre length scale. Using scanning tunnelling techniques, we observe the electronic energy gap of approximate to 0.25 eV and intra-unit cell symmetry breaking of charge distribution in individual alpha-RuCl3 surface layer. The corresponding charge-ordered pattern has a fine structure associated with two different types of charge disproportionation at Cl-terminated surface.