Abstract
At ambient pressure and zero field, tetragonal hosts stripe antiferromagnetic order at . Here, we first show via bulk thermodynamic probes and x-ray diffraction measurements that this magnetic order is connected with a structural phase transition to a superstructure that likely breaks symmetry, thus signaling nematic order. The temperature-field-pressure phase diagram of subsequently reveals the emergence of additional ordered states under applied pressure at a multicritical point. Our phenomenological model supports the presence of a vestigial nematic phase in akin to iron-based high-temperature superconductors; however, superconductivity, if present, remains to be discovered.
- Received 7 August 2019
- Revised 5 November 2019
- Accepted 25 December 2019
- Corrected 28 July 2020
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.10.011035
Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.
Published by the American Physical Society
Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)
Corrections
28 July 2020
Correction: Support information for the 11th author was missing from the Acknowledgments and has been inserted.
Popular Summary
High-temperature unconventional superconductivity in copper- and iron-based materials has been shown to be accompanied by alternating stripes of aligned magnetism intertwined with electronic nematicity, an electronic state that breaks the rotational symmetry of the underlying lattice but not its translational symmetry. The precise role that these orders have on superconductivity remains controversial because they are rare in other systems and, when present, are often hidden at low temperatures by a superconducting phase. Here, we report the discovery of a vestigial nematic phase in the heavy-fermion material with stripe magnetic order and without superconductivity.
Thermodynamic, transport, and x-ray diffraction measurements show that stripe magnetic order is connected to a structural phase transition, and our theoretical model indicates that this transition stems from vestigial nematicity. Tuning the intertwined magnetic and nematic states by applied pressure and magnetic field reveals their complex interplay. At sufficiently high pressure, these states decouple, and magnetic orders emerge.
Besides revealing previously overlooked evidence for nematicity and its coupling to stripe magnetism in , these discoveries in a heavy-fermion material provide a new perspective on the generality of these intertwined orders and the potential role of nematicity in high-temperature superconductors.