Easy-plane anisotropic-exchange magnets on a honeycomb lattice: Quantum effects and dealing with them

Abstract

We provide analytical and numerical insights into the phase diagram and other properties of the extended Kitaev-Heisenberg model on the honeycomb lattice in the {\it easy-plane} limit, in which interactions are only between spin components that belong to the plane of magnetic ions. This parameter subspace allows for a much-needed systematic {\it quantitative} investigation of spin excitations in the ordered phases and of their generic features. Specifically, we demonstrate that in this limit one can consistently take into account magnon interactions in both zero-field zigzag and field-polarized phases. For the nominally polarized phase, we propose a regularization of the unphysical divergences that occur at the critical field and are plaguing the $1/S$-approximation in this class of models. For the explored parameter subspace, all symmetry-allowed terms of the standard parametrization of the extended Kitaev-Heisenberg model, such as $K$, $J$, and $\Gamma$, are significant, making the offered consideration relevant to a much wider parameter space. The dynamical structure factor near paramagnetic critical point illustrates this relevance by showing features that are reminiscent of the ones observed in $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$, underscoring that they are not unique and should be common to a wide range of parameters of the model and, by an extension, to other materials.