Tunable emergent heterostructures in a prototypical correlated metal

D. M. Fobes; S. Zhang; S. Z. Lin; Pinaki Das; N. J. Ghimire; E. D. Bauer; J. D. Thompson; L. W. Harriger; G. Ehlers; A. Podlesnyak; R. I. Bewley; A. Sazonov; V. Hutanu; F. Ronning; C. D. Batista; M. Janoschek

doi:10.1038/s41567-018-0060-9

Tunable emergent heterostructures in a prototypical correlated metal

D. M. Fobes, S. Zhang, S. Z. Lin, Pinaki Das, N. J. Ghimire, E. D. Bauer, J. D. Thompson, L. W. Harriger, G. Ehlers, A. Podlesnyak, R. I. Bewley, A. Sazonov, V. Hutanu, F. Ronning, C. D. Batista, M. Janoschek

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19 Scopus citations

Abstract

At the interface between two distinct materials, desirable properties, such as superconductivity, can be greatly enhanced ¹ , or entirely new functionalities may emerge ² . Similar to in artificially engineered heterostructures, clean functional interfaces alternatively exist in electronically textured bulk materials. Electronic textures emerge spontaneously due to competing atomic-scale interactions ³ , the control of which would enable a top-down approach for designing tunable intrinsic heterostructures. This is particularly attractive for correlated electron materials, where spontaneous heterostructures strongly affect the interplay between charge and spin degrees of freedom ⁴ . Here we report high-resolution neutron spectroscopy on the prototypical strongly correlated metal CeRhIn ₅ , revealing competition between magnetic frustration and easy-axis anisotropy - a well-established mechanism for generating spontaneous superstructures ⁵ . Because the observed easy-axis anisotropy is field-induced and anomalously large, it can be controlled efficiently with small magnetic fields. The resulting field-controlled magnetic superstructure is closely tied to the formation of superconducting ⁶ and electronic nematic textures ⁷ in CeRhIn ₅ , suggesting that in situ tunable heterostructures can be realized in correlated electron materials.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	456-460
Number of pages	5
Journal	Nature Physics
Volume	14
Issue number	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-018-0060-9
State	Published - May 1 2018

Funding

We acknowledge useful discussions with R. Baumbach, C. Pfleiderer, M. Garst, M. Votja, P. Böni and J. M. Lawrence. Work at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) was performed under the auspices of the US Department of Energy. LANL is operated by Los Alamos National Security for the National Nuclear Security Administration of DOE under contract DE-AC52-06NA25396. Research supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering under the project ‘Complex Electronic Materials’ (material synthesis and characterization) and the LANL Directed Research and Development program (neutron scattering, development of the spin wave model, mean-field computation and development of analysis software). Research conducted at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s (ORNL) Spallation Neutron Source was sponsored by the Scientific User Facilities Division, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, US Department of Energy. Experiments at the ISIS Pulsed Neutron and Muon Source were supported by a beam time allocation from the Science and Technology Facilities Council. We acknowledge the support of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, US Department of Commerce, in providing the neutron research facilities used in this work. We acknowledge useful discussions with R. Baumbach, C. Pfleiderer, M. Garst, M. Votja, P. Boni and J. M. Lawrence. Work at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) was performed under the auspices of the US Department of Energy. LANL is operated by Los Alamos National Security for the National Nuclear Security Administration of DOE under contract DE-AC52-06NA25396. Research supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering under the project 'Complex Electronic Materials' (material synthesis and characterization) and the LANL Directed Research and Development program (neutron scattering, development of the spin wave model, mean-field computation and development of analysis software). Research conducted at Oak Ridge National Laboratory's (ORNL) Spallation Neutron Source was sponsored by the Scientific User Facilities Division, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, US Department of Energy. Experiments at the ISIS Pulsed Neutron and Muon Source were supported by a beam time allocation from the Science and Technology Facilities Council. We acknowledge the support of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, US Department of Commerce, in providing the neutron research facilities used in this work

Funders	Funder number
ISIS
LANL Directed Research and Development program
Los Alamos National Security for the National Nuclear Security Administration
Office of Basic Energy Sciences
Scientific User Facilities Division
US Department of Energy
U.S. Department of Energy	DE-AC52-06NA25396
National Institute of Standards and Technology
U.S. Department of Commerce
Basic Energy Sciences
National Nuclear Security Administration
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering
Science and Technology Facilities Council

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Fobes, D. M., Zhang, S., Lin, S. Z., Das, P., Ghimire, N. J., Bauer, E. D., Thompson, J. D., Harriger, L. W., Ehlers, G., Podlesnyak, A., Bewley, R. I., Sazonov, A., Hutanu, V., Ronning, F., Batista, C. D., & Janoschek, M. (2018). Tunable emergent heterostructures in a prototypical correlated metal. Nature Physics, 14(5), 456-460. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-018-0060-9

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abstract = " At the interface between two distinct materials, desirable properties, such as superconductivity, can be greatly enhanced 1 , or entirely new functionalities may emerge 2 . Similar to in artificially engineered heterostructures, clean functional interfaces alternatively exist in electronically textured bulk materials. Electronic textures emerge spontaneously due to competing atomic-scale interactions 3 , the control of which would enable a top-down approach for designing tunable intrinsic heterostructures. This is particularly attractive for correlated electron materials, where spontaneous heterostructures strongly affect the interplay between charge and spin degrees of freedom 4 . Here we report high-resolution neutron spectroscopy on the prototypical strongly correlated metal CeRhIn 5 , revealing competition between magnetic frustration and easy-axis anisotropy - a well-established mechanism for generating spontaneous superstructures 5 . Because the observed easy-axis anisotropy is field-induced and anomalously large, it can be controlled efficiently with small magnetic fields. The resulting field-controlled magnetic superstructure is closely tied to the formation of superconducting 6 and electronic nematic textures 7 in CeRhIn 5 , suggesting that in situ tunable heterostructures can be realized in correlated electron materials.",

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N2 - At the interface between two distinct materials, desirable properties, such as superconductivity, can be greatly enhanced 1 , or entirely new functionalities may emerge 2 . Similar to in artificially engineered heterostructures, clean functional interfaces alternatively exist in electronically textured bulk materials. Electronic textures emerge spontaneously due to competing atomic-scale interactions 3 , the control of which would enable a top-down approach for designing tunable intrinsic heterostructures. This is particularly attractive for correlated electron materials, where spontaneous heterostructures strongly affect the interplay between charge and spin degrees of freedom 4 . Here we report high-resolution neutron spectroscopy on the prototypical strongly correlated metal CeRhIn 5 , revealing competition between magnetic frustration and easy-axis anisotropy - a well-established mechanism for generating spontaneous superstructures 5 . Because the observed easy-axis anisotropy is field-induced and anomalously large, it can be controlled efficiently with small magnetic fields. The resulting field-controlled magnetic superstructure is closely tied to the formation of superconducting 6 and electronic nematic textures 7 in CeRhIn 5 , suggesting that in situ tunable heterostructures can be realized in correlated electron materials.

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Tunable emergent heterostructures in a prototypical correlated metal

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