Search for: All records

Abstract We report the perpendicular critical fieldH_c2properties of disordered Re-Al bilayers via magneto-transport measurements. The bilayers consisted of a $d_{\mathrm{Re}}=3$nm bottom layer of Re and an upper Al layer with thickness varying betweend_Al = 0 − 3 nm. We find that in this range of Al thicknesses, the bilayer transition temperatureT_cincreases with increasing Al thickness, although their monolayer counterparts have $T_c^{\mathrm{Re}}>T_c^{\mathrm{Al}}$. Furthermore,H_c2of the bilayers has a local maximum at an Al coverage of 1.5 nm with a critical field that is 50% larger than that of the standalone 3 nm Re film. At higher Al thicknessesH_c2drops rapidly but remains more than an order of magnitude greater that that of comparable thickness standalone Al film. Our data show that a thin, disordered Re under-layer can dramatically increase the magnetic field tolerance of the Al over-layer. This would allow one to retain the desirable chemical and metallurgical properties of Al without sacrificing high field compatibility in quantum circuits, such as topological qubit devices and superinductor circuits. 

Abstract The phase landscape of UTe₂features a remarkable diversity of superconducting phases under applied pressure and magnetic field. Recent quantum oscillation studies at ambient pressure have revealed the quasi-2D Fermi surface of this material. However, the pressure–dependence of the Fermi surface remains an open question. Here we track the evolution of the UTe₂Fermi surface as a function of pressure up to 19.5 kbar by measuring quantum interference oscillations. We find that in sufficient magnetic field to suppress both superconductivity at low pressures and incommensurate antiferromagnetism at higher pressures, the quasi-2D Fermi surface found at ambient pressure smoothly connects to that at 19.5 kbar, with no signs of a reconstruction over this pressure interval. We observe a smooth increase in oscillatory frequency with increasing pressure, indicating that the warping of the cylindrical Fermi sheets continuously increases with pressure. By computing a tight-binding model, we show that this enhanced warping indicates increasedf-orbital contribution at the Fermi level – up to and beyond the critical pressure at which superconductivity is truncated. These findings highlight the value of high-pressure quantum interference measurements as a sensitive probe of the electronic structure in heavy fermion materials. 

The shape of the Fermi surface, and the cyclotron effective mass of the kagome magnet GdV6Sn6 charge carriers are investigated using de Haas van Alphen (dHvA) oscillations measurements and electronic band structure calculations. The temperature and angle-dependent torque magnetometry measurements revealed at least nine different frequencies ranging from ~10 T up to ~9000 T. These frequencies correspond to extremal areas of the Fermi surface ranging from ~0.2 % up to 50% of the first Brillouin zone, qualitatively consistent with the electronic band structure calculations. The angle dependent dHvA oscillation frequencies indicate that the smaller pockets of the Fermi surface have almost 3D character whereas the bigger pockets of the Fermi surface are mostly two-dimensional. We also find evidence of the presence of light (0.28(1) m0) as well as heavy (2.37(18) m0) charge carriers through the analysis of the temperature dependence of dominant frequencies. The comparison of the observed frequencies with the electronic band structure calculations indicates that the heavy masses correspond to saddle-point-like features of electronic band structure at the M point. The observation of the multiple low frequencies and the calculated contributions from various bands to such low frequencies prevent the estimation of topological nature of bands containing lighter fermions. In conclusion, our work reveals the features of a Fermi surface containing enhanced mass fermions originated from saddle points in the electronic band structure at the M point, which is inherent to kagome lattices. 

Quantum critical phenomena are widely studied across various materials families, from high-temperature superconductors to magnetic insulators. They occur when a thermodynamic phase transition is suppressed to zero temperature as a function of some tuning parameter such as pressure or magnetic field. This generally yields a point of instability—a so-called quantum critical point—at which the phase transition is driven exclusively by quantum fluctuations. Here, we show that the heavy fermion metamagnet ${\mathrm{UTe}}_2$possesses a quantum phase transition at extreme magnetic field strengths of over 70 T. Rather than terminating at one singular point, we find that the phase boundary is sensitive to magnetic field components in each of the three Cartesian axes of magnetic field space. This results in the transition surface being bounded by a continuous ring of quantum critical points, the locus of which forms an extended line of quantum criticality—a novel form of quantum critical phase boundary. Within this quantum critical line sits a magnetic field-induced superconducting state in a toroidal shape, which persists to fields over 70 T. We model our data by a phenomenological free energy expansion and show how a quantum critical line—rather than a more conventional singular point of instability—anchors the remarkable high magnetic field phase landscape of ${\mathrm{UTe}}_2$. 

We present the magnetic and structural properties of [Cu(pyrazine)0.5(glycine)]ClO4 under applied pressure. As previously reported, at ambient pressure this material consists of quasi-two-dimensional layers of weakly coupled antiferromagnetic dimers which undergo Bose-Einstein condensation of triplet excitations between two magnetic field-induced quantum critical points (QCPs). The molecular building blocks from which the compound is constructed give rise to exchange strengths that are considerably lower than those found in other S = 1/2 dimer materials, which allows us to determine the pressure evolution of the entire field-temperature magnetic phase diagram using radio-frequency magnetometry. We find that a distinct phase emerges above the upper field-induced transition at elevated pressures and also show that an additional QCP is induced at zero field at a critical pressure of pc = 15.7(5) kbar. Pressure-dependent single-crystal x-ray diffraction and density functional theory calculations indicate that this QCP arises primarily from a dimensional crossover driven by an increase in the interdimer interactions between the planes. While the effect of quantum fluctuations on the lower field-induced transition is enhanced with applied pressure, quantum Monte Carlo calculations suggest that this alone cannot explain an unconventional asymmetry that develops in the phase diagram. 

ABSTRACT Ce-based intermetallics are of interest due to the potential to study the interplay of localized magnetic moments and conduction electrons. Our work on Ce-based germanides led to the identification of a new homologous series An+1MnX3n+1 (A = rare earth, M = transition metal, X = tetrels, and n = 1–6). This work presents the single-crystal growth, structure determination, and anisotropic magnetic properties of the n = 4 member of the Cen+1ConGe3n+1 homologous series. Ce5Co4+xGe13−ySny consists of three Ce sites, three Co sites, seven Ge sites, and two Sn sites, and the crystal structure is best modeled in the orthorhombic space group Cmmm where a = 4.3031(8) Å, b = 45.608(13) Å, and c = 4.3264(8) Å, which is in close agreement with the previously reported Sn-free analog where a = 4.265(1) Å, b = 45.175(9) Å, and c = 4.293(3) Å. Anisotropic magnetic measurements show Kondo-like behavior and three magnetic transitions at 6, 4.9, and 2.4 K for Ce5Co4+xGe13−ySn 

Abstract CeOs 4 Sb 12 , a member of the skutterudite family, has an unusual semimetallic low-temperature L -phase that inhabits a wedge-like area of the field H —temperature T phase diagram. We have conducted measurements of electrical transport and megahertz conductivity on CeOs 4 Sb 12 single crystals under pressures of up to 3 GPa and in high magnetic fields of up to 41 T to investigate the influence of pressure on the different H – T phase boundaries. While the high-temperature valence transition between the metallic H -phase and the L -phase is shifted to higher T by pressures of the order of 1 GPa, we observed only a marginal suppression of the S -phase that is found below 1 K for pressures of up to 1.91 GPa. High-field quantum oscillations have been observed for pressures up to 3.0 GPa and the Fermi surface of the high-field side of the H -phase is found to show a surprising decrease in size with increasing pressure, implying a change in electronic structure rather than a mere contraction of lattice parameters. We evaluate the field-dependence of the effective masses for different pressures and also reflect on the sample dependence of some of the properties of CeOs 4 Sb 12 which appears to be limited to the low-field region.