arXiv subjects

Daigorou Hirai

Publications and source records attributed to Daigorou Hirai.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2023

Superconductivity induced by doping holes in the nodal-line semimetal NaAlGe

The nodal-line semimetals NaAlSi and NaAlGe have significantly different ground states despite having similar electronic structures: NaAlSi exhibits superconductivity below 7 K, while NaAlGe exhibits semiconductive electrical conductivity at low temperatures, indicating the formation of a pseudogap at approximately 100 K. The origin of the pseudogap in NaAlGe is unknown but may be associated with excitonic instability. We investigated hole-doping effects on the ground state in the solid solution Na(Al1-xZnx)Ge and discovered that the pseudogap is suppressed continuously with increasing Zn content, followed by the appearance of a superconducting dome with the highest transition temperature of 2.8 K. This superconductivity most likely results from excitonic fluctuations.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2023

Successive phase transitions of the spin-orbit-coupled metal Cd2Re2O7 probed by high-resolution synchrotron x-ray diffraction

The 5d pyrochlore oxide superconductor Cd2Re2O7 (CRO) has attracted significant interest as a spin-orbit-coupled metal (SOCM) that spontaneously undergoes a phase transition to an odd-parity multipole phase by breaking the spatial inversion symmetry due to the Fermi liquid instability caused by strong spin-orbit coupling. Despite the significance of structural information during the transition, previous experimental results regarding lattice deformation have been elusive. We have conducted ultra-high resolution synchrotron radiation x-ray diffraction experiments on a high-quality CRO single crystal. The temperature-dependent splitting of the 0 0 16 and 0 0 14 reflections, which are allowed and forbidden, respectively, in the high-temperature cubic phase I (space group Fd-3m), has been clearly observed and reveals the following significant facts: inversion symmetry breaking and tetragonal distortion occur simultaneously at Ts1 = 201.5(1) K; the previously believed first-order transition between phase II (I-4m2) and phase III (I4122) at Ts2 ~ 120 K consists of two close second-order transitions at Ts2 = 115.4(1) K and Ts3 ~ 100 K; there is a new orthorhombic phase XI (F222) in between. The order parameters (OPs) of these continuous transitions are uniquely represented by a two-dimensional irreducible representation Eu of the Oh point group, and the OPs of phase XI are a linear combination of those of phases II and III. Each phase is believed to correspond to a distinct odd-parity multipole order, and the complex successive transitions observed may be the result of an electronic phase transition that resolves the Fermi liquid instability in the SOCM.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2023

Fermi surface and light quasi particles in hourglass nodal chain metal \b{eta}-ReO2

Quantum oscillations in magnetic torque and electrical resistivity were measured to investigate the electronic structure of \b{eta}-ReO2, a candidate hourglass nodal chain metal (Dirac loop chain metal). All the de Haas-van Alphen oscillation branches measured at 30 mK in magnetic fields of up to 17.5 T were consistent with first-principles calculations predicting four Fermi surfaces (FSs). The small-electron FS of the four FSs exhibited a very small cyclotron mass, 0.059 times that of the free electrons, which is likely to be related to the linear dispersion of the energy band. The consistency between the quantum oscillation results and band calculations indicates the presence of the hourglass nodal chain predicted for \b{eta}-ReO2 in the vicinity of the Fermi energy.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2023

Linear Trimer Formation by Three-Center-Four-Electron Bonding in RuP

In molecules like hydrogen, most chemical bonds are formed by sharing two electrons from each atom in the bonding molecular orbital (two-center-two-electron (2c2e) bonding). There are, however, different kinds of chemical bonding. The I3- molecule, for example, is noteworthy because three iodine atoms are linearly united by sharing four electrons (three-center-four-electron (3c4e) bonding). Some inorganic solids undergo phase transitions that result in the formation of "molecules" in their crystalline frameworks, which are often accompanied by dramatic changes in physical properties; the metal-to-insulator transition (MIT) in vanadium dioxide, for example, occurs with the formation of dimer molecules with 2c2e bonding. We repot the creation of a linear ruthenium trimer with 3c4e bonding in ruthenium monopnictide at its MIT. Charge transfer from polymerized phosphorous to ruthenium produces this unusual molecule, with all conduction electrons trapped by the bonding molecular orbital. Our results demonstrate that molecules are crucial even in solid crystals as they impact their electronic properties.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2023

Superconductivity in Ternary Scandium Telluride Sc6MTe2 with 3d, 4d, and 5d Transition Metals

We report the discovery of bulk superconductivity in Sc6MTe2 with seven kinds of transition-metal elements M. The critical temperatures for M = 3d elements are higher than those for 4d and 5d elements and increase in the order of M = Ni, Co, and Fe with the highest Tc of 4.7 K in Sc6FeTe2. First principles calculations indicate the presence of significant contribution of Fe 3d orbitals at the Fermi energy, which most likely enhance the Tc of Sc6FeTe2. The upper critical field for M = Os is considerably enhanced by the strong spin-orbit coupling. These results show Sc6MTe2 to constitute a unique family of d-electron superconductors, in which d electrons of 3d and 5d M atoms strongly influence the superconducting properties.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2022

Large Magnetic-Field-Induced Strains in Sintered Chromium Tellurides

Sintered samples of Cr3Te4 and Cr2Te3 are found to show large strains accompanied by large volume changes under a magnetic field. In Cr3Te4, volume increases of deltaV/V = 500-1170 ppm by applying a magnetic field of 9 T are observed over the entire temperature range below 350 K. At room temperature, the deltaV/V value exceeds 1000 ppm, which is considerably larger than the maximum values reported for Cr-based magnets thus far and is comparable to the room-temperature value of forced-volume magnetostriction in invar alloys. Cr2Te3 show a large deltaV/V of 680 ppm when applying a magnetic field of 9 T at 200 K. Both samples display particularly large volume increases around the Curie temperature, where they also show negative thermal expansion due to microstructural effects, suggesting that the cooperation between anisotropic lattice deformation associated with the magnetic ordering and microstructural effects is essential for the manifestation of the large magnetic-field-induced volume changes.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2022

Electronic Properties of Pyrochlore-Type Ca2Ir2O7

The electrical resistivity, magnetic susceptibility, and heat capacity of sintered samples of Ca2Ir2O7, in which pentavalent Ir atoms with 5d4 electron configuration form a pyrochlore structure, have been studied. The obtained experimental data strongly suggest that Ca2Ir2O7 is metallic below room temperature and exhibits no electronic or magnetic phase transitions above 0.12 K.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2022

Pseudogap Formation in the Nodal-Line Semimetal NaAlGe

NaAlSi and NaAlGe are isostructural and isoelectronic semimetals with topological nodal lines close to the Fermi level. Despite having virtually identical electronic structures, NaAlSi exhibits superconductivity below Tc = 6.8 K, whereas NaAlGe does not. We investigate NaAlGe by measuring its electrical resistivity, Hall effect, magnetic susceptibility, and heat capacity using single crystals. It is revealed that NaAlGe is not a simple semimetal but rather has an unusual ground state with a small pseudogap of approximately 100 K close to the Fermi level. We argue that the formation of the pseudogap in NaAlGe is due to an unexpected Fermi surface instability, such as an excitonic instability, as opposed to the electron-phonon instability that leads to the formation of the superconducting gap in NaAlSi.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2021

Pyrochlore Oxide Hg2Os2O7 on Verge of Metal-Insulator Boundary

Semimetallic osmium pyrochlore oxide Cd2Os2O7 undergoes a magnetic transition to an all-in-all-out (AIAO)-type order at 227 K, followed by a crossover to an AIAO insulator at around 210 K. Here, we studied the isostructural and isoelectronic compound Hg2Os2O7 through thermodynamic measurements, muSR spectroscopy and neutron diffraction experiments. A similar magnetic transition, probably to an AIAO-type order, was observed at 88 K, while the resistivity showed a decrease at the transition and remained metallic down to 2 K. Thus, the ground state of Hg2Os2O7 is most likely an AIAO semimetal, which is analogous to the intermediate-temperature state of Cd2Os2O7. Hg2Os2O7 exists on the verge of the metal-insulator boundary on the metal side and provides an excellent platform for studying the electronic instability of 5d electrons with moderate electron correlations and strong spin-orbit interactions.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

Unusual Resistive Transitions in the Nodal-Line Semimetallic Superconductor NaAlSi

NaAlSi is a quasi-two-dimensional semimetal with superconductivity below Tc = 6.8 K and a band structure characterized by nodal lines near the Fermi level and potential topological surface states. Electrical resistivity measurements on its superconducting transitions in magnetic fields were made using plate-like single crystals. In the magnetic field-temperature phase diagram, we observed a substantial reduction in resistivity in a pre-transitional zone above the bulk superconducting regime only when the magnetic fields were perpendicular to the plane, rather than parallel to it. Significant sample (thickness) dependence, reentrant behavior, and sensitivity to electrode configurations all indicate that a portion of the crystal has an upper critical field greater than the bulk superconductivity in the pre-transitional region. This fractional superconductivity may occur on the side surface of the crystal.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2021

Interplay between quadrupolar and magnetic interactions in 5$d^{1}$ double perovskite Ba$_2$MgReO$_6$ under pressure

We measured the electrical resistivity, AC magnetic susceptibility, and specific heat of the cubic double perovskite Ba$_2$MgReO$_6$ under pressure. The application of pressure leads to a gradual increase in the transition temperature to the canted antiferromagnetic order, while the quadrupolar order is suppressed above 5 GPa, at which a collinear antiferromagnetic state appears. The obtained unit cell volume-temperature phase diagram for the compound as well as the related compounds suggests that Ba$_2$MgReO$_6$ exists near the phase boundary between the noncollinear and the collinear antiferromagnetic order with multipole decrees of freedom.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

Dimer Crystallization Induced by Elemental Substitution in the Honeycomb Lattice of Ru1-xOsxCl3

Substitution effects of Os for Ru in α-RuCl3 are investigated in a wide composition range of 0 =< x =< 0.67 in Ru1-xOsxCl3 by X-ray and electron diffraction, magnetic susceptibility, heat capacity, and Raman spectroscopy measurements. Apart from the Kitaev physics with antiferromagnetic interactions increasing with x, a rich phase diagram is obtained, which includes an antiferromagnetic long-range order below 12 K for x =< 0.15, a dome-shaped spin-singlet dimer phase below 130 K for 0.15 =< x =< 0.40, and a magnetic short-range order for x > 0.40. A dimerization as similarly observed in α-RuCl3 under high pressure occurs in the spin-singlet phase. It is suggested that Ru-Os pairs in the solid solutions tend to form dimers with short bonds and trigger the first-order transition in the presence of pseudo-threefold rotational symmetry for dimerization around a substituted Os atom only at low substitutions. This is a rare example of molecular orbital crystallization induced by elemental substitution in a highly disordered system. The short-range order at high substitutions may be related to a random-singlet state stabilized by bond disorder in the honeycomb net.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2021

Phase transition in the 5d1 double perovskite Ba2CaReO6 induced by high magnetic field

Magnetic properties of an antiferromagnetic double perovskite oxide Ba2CaReO6, where Re6+ (5d1) ions with large spin-orbit coupling are arranged on the face-centered-cubic lattice, are investigated using pulsed high magnetic field up to 66 T. Magnetization and magnetostriction measurements have revealed a magnetic field induced phase transition at around 50 T. The phase transition accompanies a jump of magnetization and longitudinal magnetostriction of approximately 2 10^(-4) with the change of power law behavior, indicating sizable coupling between the electronic degrees of freedom and the lattice. The high field phase exhibits a magnetic moment approximately 0.2 μB, which is close to the values observed in 5d1 double perovskite oxides with non-collinear magnetic structure. We argue that Ba2CaReO6 is an antiferromagnet that sits close to the phase boundary between the collinear and non-collinear phases, providing the target material for investigating the interplay between spin-orbital entangled electrons and magnetic field.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

Extremely large magnetoresistance in the hourglass Dirac loop chain metal β-ReO$_{2}$

The transport and thermodynamic properties of $β$-ReO$_{2}$ crystallizing in a nonsymmorphic structure were studied using high-quality single crystals. An extremely large magnetoresistance (XMR) reaching 22,000 $\%$ in a transverse magnetic field of 10 T at 2 K was observed. However, distinguished from other topological semimetals with low carrier densities that show XMR, $β$-ReO$_{2}$ has a high electron carrier density of 1 $\times$ $10^{22}$ cm$^{-3}$ as determined by Hall measurements and large Fermi surfaces in the electronic structure. In addition, a small Fermi surface with a small effective mass was evidenced by de Haas-van Alphen oscillation measurements. The previous band structure calculations [S. S. Wang, et al., Nat. Commun. 8, 1844 (2017)] showed that two kinds of loops made of Dirac points of hourglass-shaped dispersions exist and are connected to each other by a point to form a string of alternating loops, called the Dirac loop chain (DLC), which are protected by the multiple glide symmetries. Our first-principles calculations revealed the complex Fermi surfaces with the smallest one corresponding to the observed small Fermi surface, which is just located near the DLC. The XMR of $β$-ReO$_{2}$ is attributed to the small Fermi surface and thus is likely caused by the DLC.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

Anisotropic Triangular Lattice Realized in Rhenium Oxychlorides A3ReO5Cl2 (A = Ba and Sr)

We report the synthesis, crystal structure, and magnetic properties of two new quantum antiferromagnets A3ReO5Cl2 (A = Sr and Ba). The crystal structure is isostructural with the mineral pinalite Pb3WO5Cl2, in which the Re6+ ion is square-pyramidally coordinated by five oxide atoms, and forms an anisotropic triangular lattice (ATL) made of S = 1/2 spins. The magnetic interactions J and J' in the ATL are estimated from magnetic susceptibilities to be 19.5 (44.9) and 9.2 (19.3) K, respectively, with J'/J = 0.47 (0.43) for A = Ba (Sr). For each compound, heat capacity at low temperatures shows a large T-linear component with no signature of long-range magnetic order above 2 K, which suggests a gapless spin liquid state of one-dimensional character of the J chains in spite of the significantly large J' couplings. This is a consequence of one-dimensionalization by geometrical frustration in the ATL magnet; a similar phenomenon has been observed in two compounds with slightly smaller J'/J values: Cs2CuCl4 (J'/J = 0.3) and the related compound Ca3ReO5Cl2 (0.32). Our findings demonstrate that 5d mixed-anion compounds provide a unique opportunity to explore novel quantum magnetism.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

Possible quadrupole order in tetragonal Ba2CdReO6 and chemical trend in the ground states of 5d1 double perovskites

The synthesis and physical properties of the double perovskite (DP) compound Ba2CdReO6 with the 5d1 electronic configuration are reported. Three successive phases originating from a spin-orbit-entangled Jeff = 3/2 state, confirmed by the reduced effective magnetic moment of 0.72 μB, were observed upon cooling. X-ray diffraction measurements revealed a structural transition from a high-temperature cubic structure to a low-temperature tetragonal structure at Ts = 170 K, below which the Jeff = 3/2 state was preserved. Magnetization, heat capacity, and thermal expansion measurements showed two more electronic transitions to a possible quadrupole ordered state at Tq = 25 K, and an antiferromagnetic order of dipoles accompanied by a ferromagnetic moment of ~ 0.2 μB at Tm = 12 K. These properties were compared with those of the sister compounds Ba2BReO6 (B = Mg, Zn, and Ca) and the chemical trend is discussed in terms of the mean-field theory for spin-orbit-coupled 5d electrons [G. Chen et al., Phys. Rev. B 82, 174440 (2010)]. The DP compound Ba2BReO6 provides a unique opportunity for a systematic investigation on symmetry breaking in the presence of multipolar degrees of freedom.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

Superconductivity in the Topological Nodal-line Semimetal NaAlSi

NaAlSi is an sp electron superconductor crystallizing in a layered structure of the anti-PbFCl type with a relatively high transition temperature Tc of ~7 K. Recent electronic state calculations revealed the presence of topological nodal lines in the semimetallic band structure, which attracted much attention owing to the superconductivity. However, experimental investigation remained limited because of the lack of single crystals. Here, we successfully prepared single crystals of NaAlSi by a Na-Ga flux method and characterized their superconducting and normal-state properties through electrical resistivity, magnetization, and heat capacity measurements. A sharp superconducting transition with a Tc of 6.8 K is clearly observed, and heat capacity data suggest an anisotropic superconducting gap. Surprisingly, despite the sp electron system, the normal state is governed by the electron correlations, which is indicated by a T2 resistivity and a Wilson ratio of 2.0. The origin of the electron correlation may be related to the orthogonal saddle-shaped Fermi surfaces derived from the Si px and py states, which intersect with the light Al s bands to form the nodal lines near the Fermi level. These results strongly suggest that the superconductivity of NaAlSi is not caused by a simple phonon mechanism but involves a certain unconventional aspect, although its relevance to the nodal lines is unclear.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2020

Domain Control by Adjusting Anisotropic Stress in Pyrochlore Oxide Cd2Re2O7

The 5d pyrochlore oxide Cd2Re2O7 exhibits successive phase transitions from a cubic pyrochlore structure (phase I) to a tetragonal structure without inversion symmetry below Ts1 of ~200 K (phase II) and further to another noncentrosymmetric tetragonal structure below Ts2 of ~120 K (phase III). The two low-temperature phases may be characterized by odd-parity multipolar orders induced by the Fermi liquid instability of the spin-orbit-coupled metal. To control the tetragonal domains generated by the transitions and to obtain a single-domain crystal for the measurements of anisotropic properties, we prepared single crystals with the (0 0 1) surface and applied biaxial and uniaxial stresses along the plane. Polarizing optical microscopy observations revealed that inducing a small strain of approximately 0.05% could flip the twin domains ferroelastically in a reversible fashion at low temperatures, which evidences that the tetragonal deformation switches at Ts2 between c > a for phase II and c < a for phase III. Resistivity measurements using single-domain crystals under uniaxial stress showed that the anisotropy was maximum at around Ts2 and turned over across Ts2: resistivity along the c axis is larger (smaller) than that along the a axis by ~25% for phase II (III) at around Ts2. These large anisotropies probably originate from spin-dependent scattering in the spin-split Fermi surfaces of the cluster electric toroidal quadrupolar phases of Cd2Re2O7.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗