Magnetoelastics of High Field Phenomena in Antiferromagnets UO2 and CeRhIn5

We use a recently developed optical fiber Bragg grating technique, in continuous and pulsed magnetic fields in excess of 90T, to study magnetoelastic correlations in magnetic materials at cryogenic temperatures. Both insulating UO2 and metallic CeRhIn5 present antiferromagnetic ground states, at T_N = 30.3K and T_N = 3.85K respectively. A strong coupling of the magnetism to the crystal lattice degrees of freedom in UO2 is found, revealing piezomagnetism as well as the dynamics of antiferromagnetic domain switching between spin arrangements connected by time reversal. The AFM domains become harder to switch as the temperature is reduced, reaching a record value H_PZ(T = 4K) = 18T. The effect of strong magnetic fields is also studied in CeRhIn5, where an anomaly in the sample crystallographic c-axis of magnitude Delta_c/c = 2 ppm is found associated to a recently proposed electronic nematic state at H_en = 30T applied 11o off the c-axis. Here we show that while this anomaly is absent when the magnetic field is applied 18o off the a-axis, strong magnetoelastic quantum oscillations attest to the high quality of the single crystal samples.Comment: 5 pages, figures include

LDA+DMFT Approach to Magnetocrystalline Anisotropy of Strong Magnets

The new challenges posed by the need of finding strong rare-earth free magnets demand methods that can predict magnetization and magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy (MAE). We argue that correlated electron effects, which are normally underestimated in band structure calculations, play a crucial role in the development of the orbital component of the magnetic moments. Because magnetic anisotropy arises from this orbital component, the ability to include correlation effects has profound consequences on our predictive power of the MAE of strong magnets. Here we show that incorporating the local effects of electronic correlations with dynamical mean-field theory provides reliable estimates of the orbital moment, the mass enhancement and the MAE of YCo5.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, published versio

Extent of Fermi-surface reconstruction in the high-temperature superconductor HgBa2_2CuO4+δ_{4+\delta}

High magnetic fields have revealed a surprisingly small Fermi-surface in underdoped cuprates, possibly resulting from Fermi-surface reconstruction due to an order parameter that breaks translational symmetry of the crystal lattice. A crucial issue concerns the doping extent of this state and its relationship to the principal pseudogap and superconducting phases. We employ pulsed magnetic field measurements on the cuprate HgBa$_2$CuO$_{4+\delta}$ to identify signatures of Fermi surface reconstruction from a sign change of the Hall effect and a peak in the temperature-dependent planar resistivity. We trace the termination of Fermi-surface reconstruction to two hole concentrations where the superconducting upper critical fields are found to be enhanced. One of these points is associated with the pseudogap end-point near optimal doping. These results connect the Fermi-surface reconstruction to both superconductivity and the pseudogap phenomena.Comment: 5 pages. 3 Figures. PNAS (2020

Intertwined Orders in Heavy-Fermion Superconductor CeCoIn5_5

The appearance of spin-density-wave (SDW) magnetic order in the low-temperature and high-field corner of the superconducting phase diagram of CeCoIn$_5$ is unique among unconventional superconductors. The nature of this magnetic $Q$ phase is a matter of current debate. Here, we present the thermal conductivity of CeCoIn$_5$ in a rotating magnetic field, which reveals the presence of an additional order inside the $Q$ phase that is intimately intertwined with the superconducting $d$-wave and SDW orders. A discontinuous change of the thermal conductivity within the $Q$ phase, when the magnetic field is rotated about antinodes of the superconducting $d$-wave order parameter, demands that the additional order must change abruptly together with the recently observed switching of the SDW. A combination of interactions, where spin-orbit coupling orients the SDW, which then selects the secondary $p$-wave pair-density-wave component (with an average amplitude of 20\% of the primary $d$-wave order parameter), accounts for the observed behavior

Field induced density wave in the heavy fermion compound CeRhIn5

Metals containing Ce often show strong electron correlations due to the proximity of the 4f state to the Fermi energy, leading to strong coupling with the conduction electrons. This coupling typically induces a variety of competing ground states, including heavy-fermion metals, magnetism and unconventional superconductivity. The d-wave superconductivity in CeTMIn5 (TM=Co, Rh, Ir) has attracted significant interest due to its qualitative similarity to the cuprate high-Tc superconductors. Here, we show evidence for a field induced phase-transition to a state akin to a density-wave (DW) in the heavy fermion CeRhIn5, existing in proximity to its unconventional superconductivity. The DW state is signaled by a hysteretic anomaly in the in-plane resistivity accompanied by the appearance of non-linear electrical transport at high magnetic fields (>27T), which are the distinctive characteristics of density-wave states. The unusually large hysteresis enables us to directly investigate the Fermi surface of a supercooled electronic system and to clearly associate a Fermi surface reconstruction with the transition. Key to our observation is the fabrication of single crystal microstructures, which are found to be highly sensitive to "subtle" phase transitions involving only small portions of the Fermi surface. Such subtle order might be a common feature among correlated electron systems, and its clear observation adds a new perspective on the similarly subtle CDW state in the cuprates.Comment: Accepted in Nature Communication

Detection of electronic nematicity using scanning tunneling microscopy

Electronic nematic phases have been proposed to occur in various correlated electron systems and were recently claimed to have been detected in scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) conductance maps of the pseudogap states of the cuprate high-temperature superconductor Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x (Bi-2212). We investigate the influence of anisotropic STM tip structures on such measurements and establish, with a model calculation, the presence of a tunneling interference effect within an STM junction that induces energy-dependent symmetry-breaking features in the conductance maps. We experimentally confirm this phenomenon on different correlated electron systems, including measurements in the pseudogap state of Bi-2212, showing that the apparent nematic behavior of the imaged crystal lattice is likely not due to nematic order but is related to how a realistic STM tip probes the band structure of a material. We further establish that this interference effect can be used as a sensitive probe of changes in the momentum structure of the sample's quasiparticles as a function of energy.Comment: Accepted for publication (PRB - Rapid Communications). Main text (5 pages, 4 figures) + Supplemental Material (4 pages, 4 figures