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Relation between Kitaev magnetism and structure in <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mrow><mml:mi>α</mml:mi><mml:mo>−</mml:mo><mml:msub><mml:mi>RuCl</mml:mi><mml:mn>3</mml:mn></mml:msub></mml:mrow></mml:math>
Raman scattering has been employed to investigate lattice and magnetic excitations of the honeycomb Kitaev material $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$ and its Heisenberg counterpart CrCl$_3$. Our phonon Raman spectra give evidence for a first-order structural transition from a monoclinic to a rhombohedral structure for both compounds. Significantly, only $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$ features a large thermal …