Strain effects on bulk α-RuCl₃ and α-RuCl₃/graphene bilayer

α-RuCl₃ has gained considerable attention recently, being the ‘proximate’ Kitaev spin liquid candidate. We discuss the effect of electronic proximity of α-RuCl₃ to graphene which gives rise to an insulator to metal transition in α-RuCl₃ with the Fermi energy located close to the bottom of the upper Hubbard band of the t_2g manifold. These results suggest the possibility of realizing metallic and even exotic superconducting states. Moreover, we show that in the strained α-RuCl₃ monolayer, the Kitaev interactions are enhanced compared to the unstrained bulk structure. Furthermore, we investigate the thermal expansion and magnetostriction coefficients of bulk α-RuCl₃ via ab initio based methods.