A possible quantum spin liquid phase in the Kitaev-Hubbard model

Abstract

Abstract The quantum spin liquid (QSL) state has been searched intensively in Kitaev-like materials, such as the Iridium oxides A 2 IrO 3 and α -RuCl 3 . The half-filled Kitaev-Hubbard model with bond dependent hopping terms is used to describe the Kitaev-like materials, which is calculated using the state-of-the-art fermionic projected entangled pair states (fPEPS) method. We find a QSL phase near the Mott insulator transition, which has a strong first-order transition to the semi-metal phase with the decrease of Hubbard U . We suggest that a promising routine to find the QSL is to find the Iridium oxides that are near the Mott insulator transitions.