Fingerprints of Kitaev physics in the magnetic excitations of honeycomb iridates

Abstract

The authors report on a proximate Kitaev spin liquid regime in two different honeycomb iridates in a broad temperature and energy range. The common phenomenology with $\ensuremath{\alpha}$-RuCl${}_{3}$ defines what constitutes a ``Kitaev material'' beyond the existence of a dominant bond-directional exchange.