arXiv subjects

I-Lin Liu

Publications and source records attributed to I-Lin Liu.

15 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2023

Tuning a magnetic energy scale with pressure in UTe$_2$

A fragile ordered state can be easily tuned by various external parameters. When the ordered state is suppressed to zero temperature, a quantum phase transition occurs, which is often marked by the appearance of unconventional superconductivity. While the quantum critical point can be hidden, the influence of the quantum criticality extends to fairly high temperatures, manifesting the non-Fermi liquid behavior in the wide range of the $p$-$H$-$T$ phase space. Here, we report the tuning of a magnetic energy scale in the heavy-fermion superconductor UTe$_2$, previously identified as a peak in the $c$-axis electrical transport, with applied hydrostatic pressure and magnetic field along the $a$-axis as complementary (and opposing) tuning parameters. Upon increasing pressure, the characteristic $c$-axis peak moves to a lower temperature before vanishing near the critical pressure of about 15 kbar. The application of a magnetic field broadens the peak under all studied pressure values. The observed Fermi-liquid behavior at ambient pressure is violated near the critical pressure, exhibiting nearly linear resistivity in temperature and an enhanced pre-factor. Our results provide a clear picture of energy scale evolution relevant to magnetic quantum criticality in UTe$_2$.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2021

Expansion of the high field-boosted superconductivity in UTe2 under pressure

Magnetic field induced superconductivity is a fascinating quantum phenomenon, whose origin is yet to be fully understood. The recently discovered spin triplet superconductor, UTe2, exhibits two such superconducting phases, with the second one reentering in the magnetic field of 45 T and persisting up to 65 T. More surprisingly, in order to induce this superconducting phase, the magnetic field has to be applied in a special angle range, not along any high symmetry crystalline direction. Here we investigated the evolution of this high-field induced superconducting phase under pressure. Two superconducting phases merges together under pressure, and the zero resistance persists up to 45 T, the field limit of the current study. We also reveal that the high field-induced superconducting phase is completely decoupled from the first order field polarized phase transition, different from previously known example of field induced superconductivity in URhGe, indicating a superconductivity boosted by a different paring mechanism.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2020

Tuning magnetic confinement of spin-triplet superconductivity

Electrical magnetoresistance and tunnel diode oscillator measurements were performed under external magnetic fields up to 41 T applied along the crystallographic b-axis (hard axis) of UTe$_2$ as a function of temperature and applied pressures up to 18.8 kbar. In this work, we track the field-induced first-order transition between superconducting and magnetic field-polarized phases as a function of applied pressure, showing a suppression of the transition with increasing pressure until the demise of superconductivity near 16 kbar and the appearance of a pressure-induced ferromagnetic-like ground state that is distinct from the field-polarized phase and stable at zero field. Together with evidence for the evolution of a second superconducting phase and its upper critical field with pressure, we examine the confinement of superconductivity by two orthogonal magnetic phases and the implications for understanding the boundaries of triplet superconductivity.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2020

Effect of chemical substitution on the skyrmion phase in Cu$_2$OSeO$_3$

Magnetic skyrmions have been the focus of intense research due to their unique qualities which result from their topological protections. Previous work on Cu$_2$OSeO$_3$, the only known insulating multiferroic skyrmion material, has shown that chemical substitution alters the skyrmion phase. We chemically substitute Zn, Ag, and S into powdered Cu$_2$OSeO$_3$ to study the effect on the magnetic phase diagram. In both the Ag and the S substitutions, we find that the skyrmion phase is stabilized over a larger temperature range, as determined via magnetometry and small-angle neutron scattering (SANS). Meanwhile, while previous magnetometry characterization suggests two high temperature skyrmion phases in the Zn-substituted sample, SANS reveals the high temperature phase to be skyrmionic while we are unable to distinguish the other from helical order. Overall, chemical substitution weakens helical and skyrmion order as inferred from neutron scattering of the $|$q$| \approx$ 0.01 $\r{A}^{-1}$ magnetic peak.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2019

Anomalous normal fluid response in a chiral superconductor UTe2

A chiral superconductor has been proposed as one pathway to realize topological quantum computation utilizing the predicted Majorana normal fluid at its boundary (i.e., a point, edge, or surface). The search for experimental realizations has led to the discovery of 1D chiral superconducting systems. However, the long-sought 2D and 3D chiral superconductors with edge and surface Majorana normal fluid are yet to be conclusively found. Here we report evidence for a chiral spin-triplet pairing state of UTe$_2$ with significant surface normal fluid response. The microwave surface impedance of the UTe$_2$ crystal was measured and converted to complex conductivity, which is sensitive to both normal and superfluid responses. The anomalous residual normal fluid conductivity in the zero temperature limit supports the presence of a significant normal fluid response. The superfluid conductivity follows the low temperature behavior predicted for the axial spin-triplet state, which is further narrowed down to the chiral spin-triplet state with evidence of broken time-reversal symmetry. The temperature dependence of the superfluid conductivity also reveals a low bulk impurity scattering rate and low frequency-to-energy-gap ratio, implying that the observed normal fluid response does not have a trivial origin. Our findings suggest that UTe$_2$ can be a new platform to study exotic topological excitations in higher dimension, and may play the role of a versatile 3D building block in the future era of topological quantum computation.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2019

Enhanced spin triplet superconductivity due to Kondo destabilization

In a Kondo lattice system, suppression of effective Kondo coupling leads to the breakdown of the heavy-electron metal and a change in the electronic structure. Spin triplet superconductivity in the Kondo lattice UTe2 appears to be associated with spin fluctuations originating from incipient ferromagnetic order. Here we show clear evidence of twofold enhancement of spin-triplet superconductivity near the pressure-driven suppression of the Kondo coherence, implying that superconductivity is strengthened by the affiliated growth of both spin and charge fluctuations. The coherent Kondo state discontinuously transitions to ferromagnetic order at higher pressures. Application of magnetic field tunes the system back across a first-order phase boundary. Straddling this phase boundary, we find another example of reentrant superconductivity in UTe2. In addition to spin fluctuations associated with ferromagnetism, our results show that a Kondo-driven Fermi surface instability may be playing a role in stabilizing spin triplet superconductivity.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2019

Point Node Gap Structure of Spin-Triplet Superconductor UTe2

Low-temperature electrical and thermal transport, magnetic penetration depth, and heat capacity measurements were performed on single crystals of the actinide superconductor UTe2 to determine the structure of the superconducting energy gap. Heat transport measurements performed with currents directed along both crystallographic a- and b-axes reveal a vanishingly small residual fermionic component of the thermal conductivity. The magnetic field dependence of the residual term follows a rapid, quasi-linear increase consistent with the presence of nodal quasiparticles, rising toward the a-axis upper critical field where the Wiedemann-Franz law is recovered. Together with a quadratic temperature dependence of the magnetic penetration depth up to T/T_c=0.3, these measurements provide evidence for an unconventional spin-triplet superconducting order parameter with point nodes. Millikelvin specific heat measurements performed on the same crystals used for thermal transport reveal an upturn below 300 mK that is well described by a divergent quantum-critical contribution to the density of states (DOS). Modeling this contribution with a T^{-1/3} power law allows restoration of the full entropy balance in the superconducting state and a resultant cubic power law for the electronic DOS below T_c, consistent with the point-node gap structure determined by thermal conductivity and penetration depth measurements.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2019

Extreme magnetic field-boosted superconductivity

Applied magnetic fields underlie exotic quantum states, such as the fractional quantum Hall effect and Bose-Einstein condensation of spin excitations. Superconductivity, on the other hand, is inherently antagonistic towards magnetic fields. Only in rare cases can these effects be mitigated over limited fields, leading to reentrant superconductivity. Here, we report the unprecedented coexistence of multiple high-field reentrant superconducting phases in the spin-triplet superconductor UTe2. Strikingly, we observe superconductivity in the highest magnetic field range identified for any reentrant superconductor, beyond 65 T. These extreme properties reflect a new kind of exotic superconductivity rooted in magnetic fluctuations and boosted by a quantum dimensional crossover.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2019

Quantum oscillations from networked topological interfaces in a Weyl semimetal

Layered transition metal chalcogenides are promising hosts of electronic Weyl nodes and topological superconductivity. MoTe$_2$ is a striking example that harbors both noncentrosymmetric T$_d$ and centrosymmetric T' phases, both of which have been identified as topologically nontrivial. Applied pressure tunes the structural transition separating these phases to zero temperature, stabilizing a mixed T$_d$-T' matrix that entails a unique network of interfaces between the two non-trivial topological phases. Here, we show that this critical pressure range is characterized by unique coherent quantum oscillations, indicating that the change in topology between two phases give rise to a new topological interface state. A rare combination of topologically nontrivial electronic structures and locked-in transformation barriers leads to this counterintuitive situation wherein quantum oscillations can be observed in a structurally inhomogeneous material. These results open the possibility of stabilizing multiple topological superconducting phases, which are important for solving the decoherence problem in quantum computers.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2018

Spontaneously polarized half-gapped superconductivity

Nonunitary superconductivity is a rare and striking phenomenon in which spin up and spin down electrons segregate into two different quantum condensates. Because they support topological excitations, such superconductors are being seriously considered for potential quantum information applications. We report the discovery of nonunitary spin-triplet superconductivity in UTe2, featuring the high transition temperature of 1.6 K and a remarkably large and anisotropic upper critical field exceeding 40 T. In this unusual superconducting state, electrons with parallel spins pair, yet only half of the available electrons participate, yielding a spin-polarized condensate that coexists with a spin-polarized metal. The superconducting order parameter, which breaks both gauge and time reversal symmetries, arises from strong ferromagnetic fluctuations, placing UTe2 as the paramagnetic end member of the ferromagnetic superconductor series. This discovery yields a new platform for encoding information using topological excitations and for manipulation of spinpolarized currents.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2018

Behavior of the breathing pyrochlore lattice Ba$_3$Yb$_2$Zn$_5$O$_{11}$ in applied magnetic field

The breathing pyrochlore lattice material Ba$_3$Yb$_2$Zn$_5$O$_{11}$ exists in the nearly decoupled limit, in contrast to most other well-studied breathing pyrochlore compounds. As a result, it constitutes a useful platform to benchmark theoretical calculations of exchange interactions in insulating Yb$^{3+}$ magnets. Here we study Ba$_3$Yb$_2$Zn$_5$O$_{11}$ at low temperatures in applied magnetic fields as a further probe of the physics of this model system. Experimentally, we consider the behavior of polycrystalline samples of Ba$_3$Yb$_2$Zn$_5$O$_{11}$ with a combination of inelastic neutron scattering and heat capacity measurements down to 75 mK and up to fields of 10 T. Consistent with previous work, inelastic neutron scattering finds a level crossing near 3 T, but no significant dispersion of the spin excitations is detected up to the highest applied fields. Refinement of the theoretical model previously determined at zero field can reproduce much of the inelastic neutron scattering spectra and specific heat data. A notable exception is a low temperature peak in the specific heat near 0.1 K. This may indicate the scale of interactions between tetrahedra or may reflect undetected disorder in Ba$_3$Yb$_2$Zn$_5$O$_{11}$.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2018

Mechanical control of crystal symmetry and superconductivity in Weyl semimetal MoTe$_2$

The non-centrosymmetric Weyl semimetal candidate, MoTe$_2$ was investigated through neutron diffraction and transport measurements at pressures up to 1.5 GPa and at temperatures down to 40 mK. Centrosymmetric and non-centrosymmetric structural phases were found to coexist in the superconducting state. Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations reveal that the strength of the electron-phonon coupling is similar for both crystal structures. Furthermore, it was found that by controlling non-hydrostatic components of stress, it is possible to mechanically control the ground state crystal structure. This allows for the tuning of crystal symmetry in the superconducting phase from centrosymmetric to non-centrosymmetric. DFT calculations support this strain control of crystal structure. This mechanical control of crystal symmetry gives a route to tuning the band topology of MoTe$_2$ and possibly the topology of the superconducting state.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2017

Pressure Tuning of Collapse of Helimagnetic Structure in Au$_2$Mn

We identify the phase boundary between spiral spin and ferromagnetic phases in Au$_2$Mn at a critical pressure of 16.4 kbar, as determined by neutron diffraction, magnetization and magnetoresistance measurements. The temperature-dependent critical field at a given pressure is accompanied by a peak in magnetoresistance and a step in magnetization. The critical field decreases with increasing temperature and pressure. The critical pressure separating the spiral phase and ferromagnetism coincides with the disappearance of the magnetroresistance peak, where the critical field goes to zero. The notable absence of an anomalous Hall effect in the the ferromagnetic phase is attributable to the high conductivity of this material.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2017

Symmetry-enforced Fermi degeneracy in topological semimetal RhSb$_3$

Predictions of a topological electronic structure in the skutterudite TPn$_3$ family (T=transition metal, Pn=pnictogen) are investigated via magnetoresistance, quantum oscillations and angle-resolved photoemission experiments of RhSb$_3$, an unfilled skutterudite semimetal with low carrier density. Electronic band structure calculations and symmetry analysis of RhSb$_3$ indicate this material to be a zero-gap semimetal protected by symmetry with inverted valence/conduction bands that touch at the $\Gamma$ point close to the Fermi level. Transport experiments reveal an unsaturated linear magnetoresistance that approaches a factor of 200 at 60~T magnetic fields, and quantum oscillations observable up to 150~K that are consistent with a large Fermi velocity ($\sim 1.3\times 10^6$ m/s), high carrier mobility ($\sim 14$ m$^2$/Vs), and the existence of a small three dimensional hole pocket. A very small, sample-dependent effective mass falls to values as low as $0.018(2)$ of the bare electron mass and scales with Fermi wavevector. This, together with a non-zero Berry's phase and location of the Fermi level in the linear region of the valence band, suggests RhSb$_3$ as representative of a new class of toplogical semimeals with symmetry-enforced Fermi degeneracy at the high symmetry points.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2016

The Tricritical Point of the f-electron Antiferromagnet USb2 Driven by High Magnetic Fields

In pulsed magnetic fields up to 65T and at temperatures below the N\'eel transition, our magnetization and magnetostriction measurements reveal a field-induced metamagnetic-like transition that is suggestive of an antiferromagnetic to polarized paramagnetic or ferrimagnetic ordering. Our data also suggests a change in the nature of this metamagnetic-like transition from second- to first-order-like near a tricritical point at T_{tc} ~145K and H_{c}~52T. At high fields for H>H_{c} we found a decreased magnetic moment roughly half of the moment reported in low field measurements. We propose that \mathit{f-p} hybridization effects and magnetoelastic interactions drive the decreased moment, lack of saturation at high fields, and the decreased phase boundary.

cond-mat.str-el↗