visualizing-uniaxial-strain-manipulation-antiferromagnetic-domains

Visualizing Uniaxial-strain Manipulation of Antiferromagnetic Domains in Fe1+YTe Using a Spin-polarized Scanning Tunneling Microscope

The quest to understand correlated electronic systems has pushed the frontiers of experimental measurements toward the development of new experimental ...

Binghamton University

Resonant x-ray scattering (RXS) has recently become an increasingly important tool for the study of ordering phenomena in correlated electron systems. Yet, the interpretation of RXS experiments remains theoretically challenging because of the complexity of the RXS cross section. Central to this debate is the recent proposal that impurity-induced Friedel oscillations, akin to quasi-particle interference signals observed with a scanning tunneling microscope (STM), can lead to scattering peaks in RXS experiments. The possibility that quasi-particle properties can be probed in RXS measurements opens up a new avenue to study the bulk band structure of materials with the orbital and element selectivity provided by RXS. We test these ideas by combining RXS and STM measurements of the heavy fermion compound CeIn ( = Co, Rh). Temperature- and doping-dependent RXS measurements at the Ce- edge show a broad scattering enhancement that correlates with the appearance of heavy -electron bands in these compounds. The scattering enhancement is consistent with the measured quasi-particle interference signal in the STM measurements, indicating that the quasi-particle interference can be probed through the momentum distribution of RXS signals. Overall, our experiments demonstrate new opportunities for studies of correlated electronic systems using the RXS technique.

Quasi-particle interference of heavy fermions in resonant x-ray scattering.

Layered material structures play a key role in enhancing electron-electron interactions to create correlated metallic phases that can transform into unconventional superconducting states. The quasi-two-dimensional electronic properties of such compounds are often inferred indirectly through examination of bulk properties. Here we use scanning tunneling microscopy to directly probe in cross-section the quasi-two-dimensional electronic states of the heavy fermion superconductor CeCoIn. Our measurements reveal the strong confined nature of quasiparticles, anisotropy of tunneling characteristics, and layer-by-layer modulated behavior of the precursor pseudogap gap phase. In the interlayer coupled superconducting state, the orientation of line defects relative to the d-wave order parameter determines whether in-gap states form due to scattering. Spectroscopic imaging of the anisotropic magnetic vortex cores directly characterizes the short interlayer superconducting coherence length and shows an electronic phase separation near the upper critical in-plane magnetic field, consistent with a Pauli-limited first-order phase transition into a pseudogap phase.

Visualizing heavy fermion confinement and Pauli-limited superconductivity in layered CeCoIn.

Uranium compounds can manifest a wide range of fascinating many-body phenomena, and are often thought to be poised at a crossover between localized and itinerant regimes for 5f electrons. The antiferromagnetic dipnictide USb has been of recent interest due to the discovery of rich proximate phase diagrams and unusual quantum coherence phenomena. Here, linear-dichroic X-ray absorption and elastic neutron scattering are used to characterize electronic symmetries on uranium in USb and isostructural UBi. Of these two materials, only USb is found to enable strong Hund's rule alignment of local magnetic degrees of freedom, and to undergo distinctive changes in local atomic multiplet symmetry across the magnetic phase transition. Theoretical analysis reveals that these and other anomalous properties of the material may be understood by attributing it as the first known high temperature realization of a singlet ground state magnet, in which magnetism occurs through a process that resembles exciton condensation.

Pegor Aynajian

Department of Physics,
Applied Physics and Astronomy,
Department of Physics, Applied Physics and Astronomy

Binghamton University

Visualizing Uniaxial-strain Manipulation of Antiferromagnetic Domains in Fe₁₊_YTe Using a Spin-polarized Scanning Tunneling Microscope

Pegor Aynajian

.css-o250i3{font-size:18px;font-family:Open Sans,sans-serif;line-height:21.6px;}Department of Physics,Applied Physics and Astronomy,Department of Physics, Applied Physics and Astronomy

Binghamton University

Visualizing Uniaxial-strain Manipulation of Antiferromagnetic Domains in Fe1+YTe Using a Spin-polarized Scanning Tunneling Microscope

Department of Physics,
Applied Physics and Astronomy,
Department of Physics, Applied Physics and Astronomy

Visualizing Uniaxial-strain Manipulation of Antiferromagnetic Domains in Fe₁₊_YTe Using a Spin-polarized Scanning Tunneling Microscope