Spin-Phonon Interaction in Yttrium Iron Garnet

Spin-phonon interaction is an important channel for spin and energy relaxation in magnetic insulators. Understanding this interaction is critical for developing magnetic insulator-based spintronic devices. Quantifying this interaction in yttrium iron garnet (YIG), one of the most extensively investigated magnetic insulators, remains challenging because of the large number of atoms in a unit cell. Here, we report temperature-dependent and polarization-resolved Raman measurements in a YIG bulk crystal. We first classify the phonon modes based on their symmetry. We then develop a modified mean-field theory and define a symmetry-adapted parameter to quantify spin-phonon interaction in a phonon-mode specific way for the first time in YIG. Based on this improved mean-field theory, we discover a positive correlation between the spin-phonon interaction strength and the phonon frequency.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, 1 table; (Supp. Info. 10 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables

Data for Linear-in temperature resistivity from an isotropic Planckian scattering rate

A variety of ‘strange metals’ exhibit resistivity that decreases linearly with temperature as the temperature decreases to zero1,2,3, in contrast to conventional metals where resistivity decreases quadratically with temperature. This linear-in-temperature resistivity has been attributed to charge carriers scattering at a rate given by ħ/τ = αkBT, where α is a constant of order unity, ħ is the Planck constant and kB is the Boltzmann constant. This simple relationship between the scattering rate and temperature is observed across a wide variety of materials, suggesting a fundamental upper limit on scattering—the ‘Planckian limit’4,5—but little is known about the underlying origins of this limit. Here we report a measurement of the angle-dependent magnetoresistance of La1.6−xNd0.4SrxCuO4—a hole-doped cuprate that shows linear-in-temperature resistivity down to the lowest measured temperatures6. The angle-dependent magnetoresistance shows a well defined Fermi surface that agrees quantitatively with angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements7 and reveals a linear-in-temperature scattering rate that saturates at the Planckian limit, namely α = 1.2 ± 0.4. Remarkably, we find that this Planckian scattering rate is isotropic, that is, it is independent of direction, in contrast to expectations from ‘hotspot’ models8,9. Our findings suggest that linear-in-temperature resistivity in strange metals emerges from a momentum-independent inelastic scattering rate that reaches the Planckian limit

Fermi surface transformation at the pseudogap critical point of a cuprate superconductor

The nature of the pseudogap phase remains a major puzzle in our understanding of cuprate high-temperature superconductivity. Whether or not this metallic phase is defined by any of the reported broken symmetries, the topology of its Fermi surface remains a fundamental open question. Here we use angle-dependent magnetoresistance (ADMR) to measure the Fermi surface of the La1.6–xNd0.4SrxCuO4 cuprate. Outside the pseudogap phase, we fit the ADMR data and extract a Fermi surface geometry that is in excellent agreement with angle-resolved photoemission data. Within the pseudogap phase, the ADMR is qualitatively different, revealing a transformation of the Fermi surface. We can rule out changes in the quasiparticle lifetime as the sole cause of this transformation. We find that our data are most consistent with a pseudogap Fermi surface that consists of small, nodal hole pockets, thereby accounting for the drop in carrier density across the pseudogap transition found in several cuprates