Gapless Dirac magnons in CrCl3

Abstract

Bosonic Dirac materials are testbeds for dissipationless spin-based electronics. In the quasi two-dimensional honeycomb lattice of CrX3 (X = Cl, Br, I), Dirac magnons have been predicted at the crossing of acoustical and optical spin waves, analogous to Dirac fermions in graphene. Here we show that, distinct from CrBr3 and CrI3, gapless Dirac magnons are present in bulk CrCl3, with inelastic neutron scattering intensity at low temperatures approaching zero at the Dirac K point. Upon warming, magnon-magnon interactions induce strong renormalization and decreased lifetimes, with a ~25% softening of the upper magnon branch intensity from 5 to 50 K, though magnon features persist well above TN. Moreover, on cooling below ~50 K, an anomalous increase in the a-axis lattice constant and a hardening of a ~26 meV phonon feature are observed, indicating magnetoelastic and spin-phonon coupling arising from an increase in the in-plane spin correlations that begins tens of Kelvin above TN.