Tunneling spectroscopy as a probe of fractionalized excitations in RuCl3/graphene stacks*

Recent studies of alpha-RuCl3 have spurred a significant deal of interest. This material is predicted to well approximate a Kitaev quantum spin liquid, a topologically-ordered state that supports fractionalized spin excitations. Several experimental studies have focused on large bulk samples, while few of them have dealt with lateral transport in proximity to thin multilayers finding unexpected results. In this work, we model the electron tunnelling through thin alpha-RuCl3 samples encapsulated with graphene and study signatures of fractionalised excitations in spin-unpolarized tunnelling currents. Since such devices can be produced by several labs in the world, our aim is to validate tunnelling spectroscopy as a tool to address the intriguing physics at play in thin alpha-RuCl3 multilayers.