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1. Charge-neutral fermions and magnetic field-driven instability in insulating YbIr3Si7

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27541-9  

   Sato, Y. ; Suetsugu, S. ; Tominaga, T. ; Kasahara, Y. ; Kasahara, S. ; Kobayashi, T. ; Kitagawa, S. ; Ishida, K. ; Peters, R. ; Shibauchi, T. ; et al ( December 2022 , Nature Communications)

   Abstract Kondo lattice materials, where localized magnetic moments couple to itinerant electrons, provide a very rich backdrop for strong electron correlations. They are known to realize many exotic phenomena, with a dramatic example being recent observations of quantum oscillations and metallic thermal conduction in insulators, implying the emergence of enigmatic charge-neutral fermions. Here, we show that thermal conductivity and specific heat measurements in insulating YbIr 3 Si 7 reveal emergent neutral excitations, whose properties are sensitively changed by a field-driven transition between two antiferromagnetic phases. In the low-field phase, a significant violation of the Wiedemann-Franz law demonstrates that YbIr 3more »Si 7 is a charge insulator but a thermal metal. In the high-field phase, thermal conductivity exhibits a sharp drop below 300 mK, indicating a transition from a thermal metal into an insulator/semimetal driven by the magnetic transition. These results suggest that spin degrees of freedom directly couple to the neutral fermions, whose emergent Fermi surface undergoes a field-driven instability at low temperatures.« less
2. Quantum liquid from strange frustration in the trimer magnet Ba4Ir3O10

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41535-020-0232-6  

   Cao, Gang ; Zheng, Hao ; Zhao, Hengdi ; Ni, Yifei ; Pocs, Christopher A. ; Zhang, Yu ; Ye, Feng ; Hoffmann, Christina ; Wang, Xiaoping ; Lee, Minhyea ; et al ( May 2020 , npj Quantum Materials)

   Quantum spin systems such as magnetic insulators usually show magnetic order, but such classical states can give way toquantum liquids with exotic entanglementthrough two known mechanisms of frustration: geometric frustration in lattices with triangle motifs, and spin-orbit-coupling frustration in the exactly solvable quantum liquid of Kitaev’s honeycomb lattice. Here we present the experimental observation of a new kind of frustrated quantum liquid arising in an unlikely place: the magnetic insulator Ba₄Ir₃O₁₀where Ir₃O₁₂trimers form an unfrustrated square lattice. The crystal structure shows no apparent spin chains. Experimentally we find a quantum liquid state persisting down to 0.2 K that is stabilizedmore »by strong antiferromagnetic interaction with Curie–Weiss temperature ranging from −766 to −169 K due to magnetic anisotropy. The anisotropy-averaged frustration parameter is 2000, seldom seen in iridates. Heat capacity and thermal conductivity are both linear at low temperatures, a familiar feature in metals but here in an insulator pointing to an exotic quantum liquid state; a mere 2% Sr substitution for Ba produces long-range order at 130 K and destroys the linear-T features. Although the Ir⁴⁺(5d⁵) ions in Ba₄Ir₃O₁₀appear to form Ir₃O₁₂trimers of face-sharing IrO₆octahedra, we propose that intra-trimer exchange is reduced and the lattice recombines into an array of coupled 1D chains with additional spins. An extreme limit of decoupled 1D chains can explain most but not all of the striking experimental observations, indicating that the inter-chain coupling plays an important role in the frustration mechanism leading to this quantum liquid.

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3. Correlation between scale-invariant normal-state resistivity and superconductivity in an electron-doped cuprate

   https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aav6753  

   Sarkar, Tarapada ; Mandal, P. R. ; Poniatowski, N. R. ; Chan, M. K. ; Greene, Richard L. ( May 2019 , Science Advances)

   An understanding of the normal state in the high-temperature superconducting cuprates is crucial to the ultimate understanding of the long-standing problem of the origin of the superconductivity itself. This so-called “strange metal” state is thought to be associated with a quantum critical point (QCP) hidden beneath the superconductivity. In electron-doped cuprates—in contrast to hole-doped cuprates—it is possible to access the normal state at very low temperatures and low magnetic fields to study this putative QCP and to probe the T ➔ 0 K state of these materials. We report measurements of the low-temperature normal-state magnetoresistance (MR) of the n-type cupratemore »system La 2− x Ce x CuO 4 and find that it is characterized by a linear-in-field behavior, which follows a scaling relation with applied field and temperature, for doping ( x ) above the putative QCP ( x = 0.14). The magnitude of the unconventional linear MR decreases as T c decreases and goes to zero at the end of the superconducting dome ( x ~ 0.175) above which a conventional quadratic MR is found. These results show that there is a strong correlation between the quantum critical excitations of the strange metal state and the high- T c superconductivity.« less
4. An all-epitaxial nitride heterostructure with concurrent quantum Hall effect and superconductivity

   https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abf1388  

   Dang, Phillip ; Khalsa, Guru ; Chang, Celesta S. ; Katzer, D. Scott ; Nepal, Neeraj ; Downey, Brian P. ; Wheeler, Virginia D. ; Suslov, Alexey ; Xie, Andy ; Beam, Edward ; et al ( February 2021 , Science Advances)

   Creating seamless heterostructures that exhibit the quantum Hall effect and superconductivity is highly desirable for future electronics based on topological quantum computing. However, the two topologically robust electronic phases are typically incompatible owing to conflicting magnetic field requirements. Combined advances in the epitaxial growth of a nitride superconductor with a high critical temperature and a subsequent nitride semiconductor heterostructure of metal polarity enable the observation of clean integer quantum Hall effect in the polarization-induced two-dimensional (2D) electron gas of the high-electron mobility transistor. Through individual magnetotransport measurements of the spatially separated GaN 2D electron gas and superconducting NbN layers, wemore »find a small window of magnetic fields and temperatures in which the epitaxial layers retain their respective quantum Hall and superconducting properties. Its analysis indicates that in epitaxial nitride superconductor/semiconductor heterostructures, this window can be significantly expanded, creating an industrially viable platform for robust quantum devices that exploit topologically protected transport.« less
5. Anomalous and anisotropic nonlinear susceptibility in the proximate Kitaev magnet α-RuCl3

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41535-021-00364-z  

   Holleis, Ludwig ; Prestigiacomo, Joseph ; Fan, Zhijie ; Nishimoto, Satoshi ; Osofsky, Michael ; Chern, Gia-Wei ; van den Brink, Jeroen & ( July 2021 , npj quantum materials)

   The leading order nonlinear (NL) susceptibility, χ3, in a paramagnet is negative and diverges as T → 0. This divergence is destroyed when spins correlate and the NL response provides unique insights into magnetic order. Dimensionality, exchange interaction, and preponderance of quantum effects all imprint their signatures in the NL magnetic response. Here, we study the NL susceptibilities in the proximate Kitaev magnet α-RuCl3, which differs from the expected antiferromagnetic behavior. For T < Tc = 7.5 K and field B in the ab-plane, we obtain contrasting NL responses in low (<2 T) and high field regions. For low fields, the NL behavior is dominated by a quadraticmore »response (positive χ2), which shows a rapid rise below Tc. This large χ2 > 0 implies a broken sublattice symmetry of magnetic order at low temperatures. Classical Monte Carlo (CMC) simulations in the standard K − H − Γ model secure such a quadratic B dependence of M, only for T ≈ Tc with χ2 being zero as T → 0. It is also zero for all temperatures in exact diagonalization calculations. On the other hand, we find an exclusive cubic term (χ3) that describes the high field NL behavior well. χ3 is large and positive both below and above Tc crossing zero only for T > 50 K. In contrast, for B ∥ c-axis, no separate low/high field behaviors are measured and only a much smaller χ3 is apparent.« less