Unveiling field-transverse spin anisotropy in the spin liquid candidate α-RuCl3 via spin Hall magnetoresistance

Alpha-phase (a-) RuCl_3 has emerged as a possible candidate for a quantum spin liquid (QSL) that promises exotic quasi-particles relevant for fault-tolerant quantum computation. Here, we report spin-sensitive transport measurements using a proximal spin Hall metal -- platinum (Pt) -- to probe magnetic moments in the insulator a-RuCl_3. We observe a spin Hall magnetoresistance (SMR) where both the transverse and longitudinal resistivities of a-RuCl_3/Pt exhibit oscillations as functions of the angle between the in-plane magnetic field and the current, arising from the interplay between the spin Hall effect in Pt and local magnetic moments in a-RuCl3. The oscillations are observed from 1.5 T to 18 T, spanning the range of magnetic fields where zig-zag antiferromagnetic phase, the putative QSL phase, and the partially field-polarized states are reported in a-RuCl_3. The phase of the SMR oscillations suggest that the local moments, regardless of static or fluctuating, in a-RuCl_3 develop an anisotropy with an in-plane quantization axis that aligns largely transverse to the magnetic field for all fields above 1.5 T. Temperature dependance of the SMR revealed that the spin anisotropy has a similar energy scale to reported QSL signatures in a-RuCl_3. The coupling between the spin states within a-RuCl_3 and Pt demonstrated in our experiment opens a transport route to exploring exotic spin phases and device functionalities of QSL materials.