npj Quantum Materials最新文献

The 4d-electron trimer lattice Ba₄Nb₁₋_ₓRu₃₊_ₓO₁₂ exhibits either a quantum spin liquid (QSL) or a heavy-fermion strange metal (HFSM) phase, depending on Nb content. In the QSL state, itinerant spinons act as effective heat carriers, enhancing thermal conductivity. Strikingly, applying a magnetic field up to 14 T causes an abrupt, up-to-5000% increase in heat capacity below 150 mK, disrupting the linear temperature dependence typical of both phases. Meanwhile, AC susceptibility and electrical resistivity remain nearly unchanged, while thermal conductivity drops by up to 40% below 4 K. These results suggest spinons, despite being charge-neutral, are highly sensitive to magnetic fields at low temperatures. We propose that the magnetic field could induce Anderson localization of spinons, creating emergent non-magnetic two-level systems responsible for the Schottky-like anomaly in heat capacity. These findings point to a previously unexplored regime of spinon dynamics, potentially governed by field-induced localization and distinct from conventional magnetic or transport signatures.

At the quantum critical point of correlated materials, a non-Fermi liquid state appears where electron correlations continuously develop to very low temperatures. The relaxation time of the interacted electrons, namely quasiparticles, is scaled with the Planckian time, ℏ/k_BT. However, there is a debate over whether heavy-fermion systems can obey the Planckian time. In the optical conductivity spectra, the Drude response will appear as the scaling of ℏω/k_BT as the dynamical Planckian scaling (DPS). Here, we report the non-Fermi liquid behavior in the Drude response of a candidate for such materials, the quasi-kagome Kondo lattice CeRhSn. Even though the material shows a strong valence fluctuation, renormalized Drude responses observed at the photon energy below 100 meV are characterized by non-Fermi-liquid-like scattering rate 1/τ. The heavy carriers’ Drude response only for the Ce quasi-kagome plane obeyed DPS below 80 K, suggesting the anisotropic quantum criticality with the strong c-f hybridization.

Inspired by empirical evidence of the existence of pair-density-wave (PDW) order in certain underdoped cuprates, we investigate the collective modes in systems with unidirectional PDW order with momenta ± Q and a d-wave form-factor with special focus on the amplitude (Higgs) modes. In the pure PDW state, there are two overdamped Higgs modes. We show that a phase with co-existing PDW and uniform (d-wave) superconducting (SC) order, PDW/SC, spontaneously breaks time-reversal symmetry—and thus is distinct from a simpler phase, SC/CDW, with coexisting SC and charge-density-wave (CDW) order. The PDW/SC phase exhibits three Higgs modes, one of which is sharply peaked and is predominantly a PDW fluctuation, symmetric between Q and −Q, whose damping rate is strongly reduced by SC. This sharp mode should be visible in Raman experiments.

Altermagnetism, a recently discovered class of magnetic order characterized by vanishing net magnetization and spin-splitting band structures, has garnered significant research attention. In this work, we introduce a novel two-dimensional system that exhibits g-wave altermagnetism and undergoes a strain-induced transition from g-wave to d-wave altermagnetism. This system can be realized in an unconventional monolayer Cairo pentagonal lattice, for which we present a realistic tight-binding model that incorporates both magnetic and non-magnetic sites. Furthermore, we demonstrate that non-trivial band topology can emerge in this system by breaking the symmetry that protects the spin-polarized nodal points. Finally, ab initio calculations on several candidate materials, such as FeS₂ and Nb₂FeB₂, which exhibit symmetry consistent with the proposed tight-binding Hamiltonian, are also presented. These findings open new avenues for exploring spintronic devices based on altermagnetic systems.

In magnetic topological insulators, spontaneous time-reversal symmetry breaking by intrinsic magnetic order can gap the topological surface spectrum, resulting in exotic properties like axion electrodynamics, the quantum anomalous Hall effect, and other topological magnetoelectric responses. Understanding the magnetic order and its coupling to topological states is essential to harness these properties. Here, we leverage near-resonant magnetic dipole optical second harmonic generation to probe magnetic fluctuations in the candidate axion insulator EuSn₂(As,P)₂ across its antiferromagnetic phase boundary. We observe a pronounced dimensional crossover in the quantum decoherence induced by magnetic fluctuations, whereby two-dimensional in-plane ferromagnetic correlations at high temperatures give way to three-dimensional long-range order at the Néel temperature. We also observe the breaking of rotational symmetry within the long-range-ordered antiferromagnetic state and map out the resulting spatial domain structure. More generally, we demonstrate the unique capabilities of nonlinear optical spectroscopy to study quantum coherence and fluctuations in magnetic quantum materials.

Superconductivity in doped SrTiO₃ has remained an enduring mystery for over 50 years. The material’s status as a “quantum" ferroelectric metal, characterized by a soft polar mode, suggests that quantum criticality could play a pivotal role in the emergence of its superconducting state. We show that the system is amenable to a strong coupling (Eliashberg) pairing analysis, with the dominant coupling to the soft mode being a “dynamical” Rashba coupling. We compute the expected T_c for the entire phase diagram, all the way to the quantum critical point and beyond. We demonstrate that the linear coupling is sufficient to obtain a rough approximation of the experimentally measured phase diagram, but that nonlinear coupling terms are crucial in reproducing the finer features in the ordered phase. The primary role of nonlinear terms at the peak of the superconducting dome is to enhance the effective linear coupling induced by the broken order, shifting the dome’s maximum into the ordered phase. Our theory quantitatively reproduces the three-dimensional experimental phase diagram in the space of carrier density, distance from the quantum critical point and temperature, and allows us to estimate microscopic parameters from the experimental data.

Noncoplanar spin textures usually exhibit a finite scalar spin chirality (SSC) that can generate effective magnetic fields and lead to additional contributions to the Hall effect, namely topological or unconventional anomalous Hall effect (UAHE). Unlike topological spin textures (e.g., magnetic skyrmions), materials that exhibit fluctuation-driven SSC and UAHE are rare. So far, their realization has been limited to either low temperatures or high magnetic fields, both of which are unfavorable for practical applications. Identifying new materials that exhibit UAHE in a low magnetic field at room temperature is therefore essential. Here, we report the discovery of a large UAHE far above room temperature in epitaxial Fe₃Ga₄ films, where the fluctuation-driven SSC stems from the field-induced transverse-conical-spiral phase. Considering their epitaxial nature and the large UAHE stabilized at room temperature in a low magnetic field, Fe₃Ga₄ films represent an exciting, albeit rare, example of a promising material for spintronic devices.

Understanding the ground state of van der Waals (vdW) magnets is crucial for designing devices leveraging these platforms. Here, we investigate the magnetic excitations and charge order in Fe_4.75GeTe₂, a vdW ferromagnet with ≈ 315 K Curie temperature. Using Fe L₃-edge resonant inelastic X-ray scattering, we observe a dual nature of magnetic excitations, comprising a coherent magnon and a broad non-dispersive continuum extending up to 150 meV, 50% higher than in Fe_2.72GeTe₂. The continuum intensity is sinusoidally modulated along the stacking direction L, with a period matching the inter-slab distance. Our results indicate that while the dual character of the magnetic excitations is generic to Fe-Ge-Te vdW magnets, Fe_4.75GeTe₂exhibits a longer out-of-plane magnetic correlation length, suggesting enhanced 3D magnetic character. Furthermore, resonant X-ray diffraction reveals that previously reported ±(1/3, 1/3, L) peaks originate from crystal structure rather than from charge order.

We discuss new opportunities in the study of materials arising from combining high intensity, phase-stable light pulses in the THz and mid-infrared with current and upcoming instrumentation at X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) facilities. We briefly summarize the relevant new technologies involved in making long-wavelength pump pulses, and upcoming advances in XFEL instrumentation. We also describe some initial key experiments in this quickly developing field, and provide an outlook.

Altermagnetism has been detected in several materials using spin-sensitive probes. These measurements require rather complex setups that make it challenging to track variations in altermagnetic order, e.g., to identify a temperature-tuned altermagnetic phase transition. We propose a simple transport measurement that can probe the order parameter for d-wave altermagnetism. We suggest magnetoconductivity anisotropy—the difference between the two principal values of the magnetoconductivity tensor. This quantity can be easily measured as a function of temperature, without any spin-selective apparatus. It acquires a nonzero value in a C₄K phase, where C₄ rotations and time reversal K are not symmetries but their combination is. This effect can be traced to the modification of phase space density due to Berry curvature, which we demonstrate using semiclassical equations of motion for band electrons. As an illustration, we build a minimal tight-binding model with altermagnetic order that breaks C₄ and K symmetries while preserving C₄K.