arXiv subjects

Ian M. Hayes

Publications and source records attributed to Ian M. Hayes.

16 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Field-angle-resolved heat transport in UTe$_2$: determination of nodal positions in the superconducting order parameter

One of the recurring hurdles in studying unconventional superconductivity is the challenge of efficiently and conclusively identifying the symmetry of the superconducting order parameter in a new material. Uranium ditelluride (UTe$_2$) exhibits an unprecedented number of superconducting phases as a function of pressure and magnetic field, each presumably characterized by a different symmetry of the superconducting gap function. None of these phases has had its symmetry conclusively identified so far. In this article, we report results of an extensive study of the thermal conductivity of UTe$_2$ in its low-field, low-temperature superconducting state as a function of the angle of an applied magnetic field rotated in the $b$-$c$ plane. We observe clear and substantial oscillations in the thermal conductivity as a function of field angle, which naturally suggests the existence of point nodes in the gap. Utilizing the experimentally determined Fermi surface, we are able to model this phenomenon for all the potential gap structures in UTe$_2$ and positively identify the location of these nodes as being along the crystallographic $b$-axis, implying that the superconducting order parameter belongs to the $B_{2u}$ irreducible representation of the crystal point group. The clarity of this result will accelerate the identification of other superconducting phases in UTe$_2$, and guide future studies through the use of high resolution field-angle-dependent measurements.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2025

The Future of the Correlated Electron Problem

A central problem in modern condensed matter physics is the understanding of materials with strong electron correlations. Despite extensive work, the essential physics of many of these systems is not understood and there is very little ability to make predictions in this class of materials. In this manuscript we share our personal views on the major open problems in the field of correlated electron systems. We discuss some possible routes to make progress in this rich and fascinating field. This manuscript is the result of the vigorous discussions and deliberations that took place at Johns Hopkins University during a three-day workshop January 27, 28, and 29, 2020 that brought together six senior scientists and 46 more junior scientists. Our hope, is that the topics we have presented will provide inspiration for others working in this field and motivation for the idea that significant progress can be made on very hard problems if we focus our collective energies.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

Revealing isotropic abundant low-energy excitations in UTe$_2$ through complex microwave surface impedance

The complex surface impedance is a well-established tool to study the super- and normal-fluid responses of superconductors. Fundamental properties of the superconductor, such as the pairing mechanism, Fermi surface, and topological properties, also influence the surface impedance. We explore the microwave surface impedance of spin-triplet UTe$_2$ single crystals as a function of temperature using resonant cavity perturbation measurements employing a novel multi-modal analysis to gain insight into these properties. We determine a composite surface impedance of the crystal for each mode using resonance data combined with the independently measured normal state dc resistivity tensor. The normal state surface impedance reveals the weighting of current flow directions in the crystal of each resonant mode. For UTe$_2$, we find an isotropic $Δλ(T) \sim T^α$ power-law temperature dependence for the magnetic penetration depth for $T\le T_c/3$ with $α< 2$, which is inconsistent with a single pair of point nodes on the Fermi surface under weak scattering. We also find a similar power-law temperature dependence for the low-temperature surface resistance $R_s(T) \sim T^{α_R}$ with $α_R < 2$. We observe a strong anisotropy of the residual microwave loss across these modes, with some modes showing loss below the universal line-nodal value, to those showing substantially more. We compare to predictions for topological Weyl superconductivity in the context of the observed isotropic power-laws, and anisotropy of the residual loss.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2024

Probing $p$-wave superconductivity in UTe$_2$ via point-contact junctions

Uranium ditelluride (UTe$_2$) is the strongest contender to date for a $p$-wave superconductor in bulk form. Here we perform a spectroscopic study of the ambient pressure superconducting phase of UTe$_2$, measuring conductance through point-contact junctions formed by metallic contacts on different crystalline facets down to 250 mK and up to 18 T. Fitting a range of qualitatively varying spectra with a Blonder-Tinkham-Klapwijk(BTK) model for $p$-wave pairing, we can extract gap amplitude and interface barrier strength for each junction. We find good agreement with the data for a $p_y$ -wave gap function with amplitude in 0.26 $\pm$ 0.06 meV. Our work provides spectroscopic evidence for a gap structure consistent with the proposed spin-triplet pairing in the superconducting state of UTe$_2$.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2024

Resonant Ultrasound Spectroscopy for Irregularly-Shaped Samples and its Application to Uranium Ditelluride

Resonant ultrasound spectroscopy (RUS) is a powerful technique for measuring the full elastic tensor of a given material in a single experiment. Previously, this technique was limited to regularly-shaped samples such as rectangular parallelepipeds, spheres, and cylinders. We demonstrate a new method for determining the elastic moduli of irregularly-shaped samples, extending the applicability of RUS to a much larger set of materials. We apply this new approach to the recently-discovered unconventional superconductor UTe$_2$ and provide its elastic tensor at both 300 and 4 kelvin.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2024

Robust nodal behavior in the thermal conductivity of superconducting UTe$_2$

The superconducting state of the heavy-fermion metal UTe$_2$ has attracted considerable interest because of evidence for spin-triplet Cooper pairing and non-trivial topology. Progress on these questions requires identifying the presence or absence of nodes in the superconducting gap function and their dimension. In this article we report a comprehensive study of the influence of disorder on the thermal transport in the superconducting state of UTe$_2$. Through detailed measurements of the magnetic field dependence of the thermal conductivity in the zero-temperature limit, we obtain clear evidence for the presence of point nodes in the superconducting gap for all samples with transition temperatures ranging from 1.6~K to 2.1~K obtained by different synthesis methods, including a refined self-flux method. This robustness implies the presence of symmetry-imposed nodes throughout the range studied, further confirmed via disorder-dependent calculations of the thermal transport in a model with a single pair of nodes. In addition to capturing the temperature dependence of the thermal conductivity up to $T_c$, this model allows us to limit the possible locations of the nodes, suggesting a B$_{1u}$ or B$_{2u}$ symmetry for the superconducting order parameter. Additionally, comparing the new, ultra-high conductivity samples to older samples reveals a crossover between a low-field and a high field regime at a single value of the magnetic field in all samples. In the high field regime, the thermal conductivity at different disorder levels differ from each other by a simple offset, suggesting that some simple principle determines the physics of the mixed state, a fact which may illuminate trends observed in other clean nodal superconductors.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2020

Evidence for freezing of charge degrees of freedom across a critical point in CeCoIn$_5$

The presence of a quantum critical point separating two distinct zero-temperature phases is thought to underlie the `strange' metal state of many high-temperature superconductors. The nature of this quantum critical point, as well as a description of the resulting strange metal, are central open problems in condensed matter physics. In large part, the controversy stems from the lack of a clear broken symmetry to characterize the critical phase transition, and this challenge is no clearer than in the example of the unconventional superconductor CeCoIn$_5$. Through Hall effect and Fermi surface measurements of CeCoIn$_5$, in comparison to ab initio calculations, we find evidence for a critical point that connects two Fermi surfaces with different volumes without apparent symmetry-breaking, indicating the presence of a transition that involves an abrupt localization of one sector of the charge degrees of freedom. We present a model for the anomalous electrical Hall resistivity of this material based on the conductivity of valence charge fluctuations.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2020

Magnetoresistance scaling, disorder, `hot spots' and the origin of $T$-linear resistivity in BaFe$_2$(As$_{1-x}$P$_x$)$_2$

The scaling of $H$-linear magnetoresistance in field and temperature was measured in under-doped (x = 0.19) and optimally-doped (x=0.31)~BaFe$_2$(As$_{1-x}$P$_x$)$_2$. We analyze the data based on an orbital model in the presence of strongly anisotropic quasiparticle spectra and scattering time due to antiferromagnetism. The magnetoresistance is dominated by the properties of small regions of the Fermi surface called `hot spots' where antiferromagnetic excitations induce a large quasiparticle scattering rate. Approximate temperature-magnetic field scaling relations are derived and shown to be consistent with the experimental data. We argue that these results link the origin of linear-in-temperature resistivity to hot spots arising from an antiferromagnetic critical point, and magnetoresistance measurements provide a route to quantify this link.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2020

Weyl Superconductivity in UTe2

The search for a material platform for topological quantum computation has recently focused on unconventional superconductors. Such material systems, where the superconducting order parameter breaks a symmetry of the crystal point group, are capable of hosting novel phenomena, including emergent Majorana quasiparticles. Unique among unconventional superconductors is the recently discovered UTe2, where spin-triplet superconductivity emerges from a paramagnetic normal state. Although UTe2 could be considered a relative of a family of known ferromagnetic superconductors, the unique crystal structure of this material and experimentally suggested zero Curie temperature pose a great challenge to determining the symmetries, magnetism, and topology underlying the superconducting state. These emergent properties will determine the utility of UTe2 for future spintronics and quantum information applications. Here, we report observations of a non-zero polar Kerr effect and of two transitions in the specific heat upon entering the superconducting state, which together show that the superconductivity in UTe2 is characterized by an order parameter with two components that breaks time reversal symmetry. These data allow us to place firm constraints on the symmetries of the order parameter, which strongly suggest that UTe2 is a Weyl superconductor that hosts chiral Fermi arc surface states.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2019

The strange metal Hall effect connects quantum criticality and superconductivity in an iron-based superconductor

Many unconventional superconductors exhibit a common set of anomalous charge transport properties that characterize them as `strange metals', which provides hope that there is single theory that describes them. However, model-independent connections between the strange metal and superconductivity have remained elusive. In this letter, we show that the Hall effect of the unconventional superconductor BaFe$_2$(As$_{1-x}$P$_x$)$_2$ contains an anomalous contribution arising from the correlations within the strange metal. This term has a distinctive dependence on magnetic field, which allows us to track its behavior across the doping-temperature phase diagram, even under the superconducting dome. These measurements demonstrate that the strange metal Hall component emanates from a quantum critical point and, in the zero temperature limit, decays in proportion to the superconducting critical temperature. This creates a clear and novel connection between quantum criticality and superconductivity, and suggests that similar connections exist in other strange metal superconductors.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2018

Equivalence of magnetic field and particle dilution in the strange metal state of CeCoIn$_5$

The Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer mechanism for superconductivity is a triumph of the theory of many-body systems. Implicit in its formulation is the existence of long-lived (quasi)particles, originating from the electronic building blocks of the materials, which interact to form Cooper pairs that move coherently in lock-step. The challenge of unconventional superconductors is that it is not only unclear what the nature of the interactions are, but whether the familiar quasi-particles that form a superconducting condensate even exist. In this work, we reveal, by the study of applied magnetic field in electronically diluted materials, that the metallic properties of the unconventional superconductor CeCoIn$_5$ are determined by the degree of quantum entanglement that (Kondo) hybridizes local and itinerant electrons. This work suggests that the properties of the strange metallic state are a reflection of the disentanglement of the many-body state into the underlying electronic building blocks of the system itself.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2018

Anisotropy in the Magnetoresistance Scaling of BaFe$_2$(As$_{1-x}$P$_{x}$)$_2$

Theories of the strange metal, the parent state of many high temperature superconductors, invariably involve an important role for correlations in the spin and charge degrees of freedom. The most distinctive signature of this state in the charge transport sector is a resistance that varies linearly in temperature, but this phenomenon does not clearly point to one mechanism as temperature is a scalar quantity that influences every possible mechanism for momentum relaxation. In a previous work we identified an unusual scaling relationship between magnetic field and temperature in the in-plane resistivity of the unconventional superconductor BaFe$_2$(As$_{1-x}$P$_{x}$)$_2$, providing an opportunity to use the vector nature of the magnetic field to acquire additional clues about the mechanisms responsible for scattering in the strange metal state. Here we extend this work by investigating other components of the conductivity tensor under different orientations of the magnetic field. We find that the scaling phenomenon involves only the out-of-plane component of the magnetic field and is, strikingly, independent of the direction of the applied current. This suggests that the origin of the strange magnetotransport is in the action of the magnetic field on the correlated behavior of spin and charge degrees of freedom, rather than on the simple cyclotron motion of individual quasiparticles.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2017

Imaging anomalous nematic order and strain in optimally doped BaFe$_2$(As,P)$_2$

We present the strain and temperature dependence of an anomalous nematic phase in optimally doped BaFe$_2$(As,P)$_2$. Polarized ultrafast optical measurements reveal broken 4-fold rotational symmetry in a temperature range above $T_c$ in which bulk probes do not detect a phase transition. Using ultrafast microscopy, we find that the magnitude and sign of this nematicity vary on a ${50{-}100}~μ$m length scale, and the temperature at which it onsets ranges from 40 K near a domain boundary to 60 K deep within a domain. Scanning Laue microdiffraction maps of local strain at room temperature indicate that the nematic order appears most strongly in regions of weak, isotropic strain. These results indicate that nematic order arises in a genuine phase transition rather than by enhancement of local anisotropy by a strong nematic susceptibility. We interpret our results in the context of a proposed surface nematic phase.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2016

Shubnikov-de Haas quantum oscilations reveal a reconstructed Fermi surface near optimal doping in a thin film of the cuprate superconductor Pr$_{1.86}$Ce$_{0.14}$CuO$_{4\pmδ}$

We study magnetotransport properties of the electron-doped superconductor Pr$_{2-x}$Ce$_x$CuO$_{4\pmδ}$ with $x$ = 0.14 in magnetic fields up to 92~T, and observe Shubnikov de-Haas magnetic quantum oscillations. The oscillations display a single frequency $F$=255$\pm$10~T, indicating a small Fermi pocket that is $\sim$~1\% of the two-dimensional Brillouin zone and consistent with a Fermi surface reconstructed from the large hole-like cylinder predicted for these layered materials. Despite the low nominal doping, all electronic properties including the effective mass and Hall effect are consistent with overdoped compounds. Our study demonstrates that the exceptional chemical control afforded by high quality thin films will enable Fermi surface studies deep into the overdoped cuprate phase diagram.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2015

Quantum oscillations suggest hidden quantum phase transition in the cuprate superconductor Pr$_{2}$CuO$_{4\pmδ}$

For both electron- and hole-doped cuprates, superconductivity appears in the vicinity of suppressed broken symmetry order, suggesting that quantum criticality plays a vital role in the physics of these systems. A confounding factor in identifying the role of quantum criticality in the electron-doped systems is the competing influence of chemical doping and oxygen stoichiometry. Using high quality thin films of Pr$_{2}$CuO$_{4\pmδ}$, we tune superconductivity and uncover the influence of quantum criticality without Ce substitution. We observe magnetic quantum oscillations that are consistent with the presence of small hole-like Fermi surface pockets, and a large mass enhancement near the suppression of superconductivity. Tuning these materials using only oxygen stoichiometry allows the observation of quantum oscillations and provides a new axis with which to explore the physics underlying the electron-doped side of the cuprate phase diagram.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2013

Optimal Control for Electron Shuttling

In this paper we apply an optimal control technique to derive control fields that transfer an electron between ends of a chain of donors or quantum dots. We formulate the transfer as an optimal steering problem, and then derive the dynamics of the optimal control. A numerical algorithm is developed to effectively generate control pulses. We apply this technique to transfer an electron between sites of a triple quantum dot and an ionized chain of phosphorus dopants in silicon. Using the optimal pulses for the spatial shuttling of phosphorus dopants, we then add hyperfine interactions to the Hamiltonian and show that a 500 G magnetic field will transfer the electron spatially as well as transferring the spin components of two of the four hyperfine states of the electron-nuclear spin pair.

quant-ph↗