Uniaxial stress technique and investigations into correlated electron systems

Condensed matter;Superconductivity

Barber, Mark E. ; Mackenzie, Andrew ; Mackenzie, Andrew

University:University of St Andrews

Department:Physics & Astronomy (School of)

关键词: Condensed matter;    Superconductivity;   

Others  :  https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/10023/15429/MarkBarberPhDThesis.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y

来源: DR-NTU

【 摘 要 】

In the repertoire of an experimental condensed matter physicist, the ability to tune continuously through features in the electronic structure and to selectively break point-group symmetries are both valuable techniques. The experimental technique at the heart of this dissertation, uniaxial stress, can do both such things.The thesis will start with a thorough discussion of our new technique, which was continually developed over the course of this work, presenting both its unique capabilities and also some guidance on the best working practices, before moving on to describe results obtained on two different strongly correlated electron materials.The first, Sr₂RuO₄, is an unconventional superconductor, whose order parameter has long been speculated to be odd-parity. Of interest to us is the close proximity of one of its three Fermi surfaces to a Van Hove singularity (VHs). Our results strongly suggest that we have been able to traverse the VHs, inducing a topological Lifshitz transition. T[sub]c is enhanced by a factor ~2.3 and measurements of H[sub](c2) open the possibility that optimally strained Sr₂RuO₄ has an even-parity, rather than odd-parity, order parameter. Measurements of the normal state properties show that quasiparticle scattering is increased across all the bands and in all directions, and effects of quantum criticality are observed around the suspected Lifshitz transition.Sr₃Ru₂O₇ has a metamagnetic quantum critical endpoint, which in highly pure samples is masked by a novel phase. Weak in-plane magnetic fields are well-known to induce strong resistive anisotropy in the novel phase, leading to speculation that a spontaneous, electronically driven lowering of symmetry occurs. Using magnetic susceptibility and resistivity measurements we can show that in-plane anisotropic strain also reveals the strong susceptibility to electronic anisotropy. However, the phase diagram that these pressure measurements reveal is consistent only with large but finite susceptibility, and not with spontaneous symmetry reduction.