Some of the highest-temperature superconductors and other strongly correlated quantum materials exhibit an anisotropic electronic phase, called nematic phase, where electrons spontaneously break the rotational symmetry of the crystal lattice without further breaking translational symmetry.
Micro-structured YbRu2Ge2sample, designed to allow measurements of different components of the elastoresistivity tensor. Bright CHESS beams are needed to probe these microcrystals.
The fundamental physics governing this transition is not understood yet.
A team of researchers from Stanford, Washington, and CHESS have identified the compound YbRu2Ge2as an ideal model material to study electronic nematicity.
By combining precision x-ray and transport measurements of tiny crystals at low temperatures, they have established a detailed understanding of the coupling between strain, local magnetic moments, and conduction electrons.
Understanding the role of nematicphases in superconductors is important, if we want to learn how to design materials with superconductivity at higher temperatures. Such materials are key to next-generation computing and sensing technologies, with important applications in medicine (MRI) and transportation (MagLev).
Spontaneous electronic symmetry breaking is poorly understood, and many of the materials which exhibit this effect are highly complex. YbRu2Ge2is simpler and it will be an ideal “laboratory” to learn about electronic nematicity.
This research required low temperature, high-resolution, X-ray diffraction measurements of very small crystals. CHESS undulator beams provided the necessary capabilities.
CHESS Staff Scientist Jacob Ruff has a long-running collaboration with the Fisher group at Stanford, that seeks to understand the details of quantummaterials.
Researchers at Stanford were supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (Grant GBMF4414), the State of Washington-funded Clean Energy Institute, and a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (Grant DGE-114747). Part of this work was performed at the Stanford Nano Shared Facilities, supported by NSF (ECCS-1542152). Research conducted at the CHESS is supported by the NSF and NIH/National Institute of General Medical Sciences via NSF Award DMR-1332208.
Elliott W. Rosenberg et al. (Stanford University; University of Washington, Seattle; CHESS)
DMR-1332208