Novel ground states might be realized in honeycomb lattices with strong spin-orbit coupling. Here we study the electronic structure of ${alpha}$-RuCl$_3$, in which the Ru ions are in a d5 configuration and form a honeycomb lattice, by angle-resolved photoemission, x-ray photoemission and electron energy loss spectroscopy supported by density functional theory and multiplet calculations. We find that ${alpha}$-RuCl$_3$ is a Mott insulator with significant spin-orbit coupling, whose low energy electronic structure is naturally mapped onto Jeff states. This makes ${alpha}$-RuCl$_3$ a promising candidate for the realization of Kitaev physics. Relevant electronic parameters such as the Hubbard energy U, the crystal field splitting 10Dq and the charge transfer energy are evaluated. Furthermore, we observe significant Cl photodesorption with time, which must be taken into account when interpreting photoemission and other surface sensitive experiments.
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