arXiv subjects

K. A. Modic

Publications and source records attributed to K. A. Modic.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Eclipsing Kitaev: off-diagonal exchange governs the correlated high-field phases of $\beta$-Li$_2$IrO$_3$

We report a high-field thermodynamic study of the hyperhoneycomb Kitaev material $\beta$-Li$_2$IrO$_3$, using magnetotropic susceptibility to resolve its low-temperature field-angle phase diagram across the principal crystallographic planes in magnetic fields up to $60$ T. Rather than evolving directly from the low-field incommensurate state into a polarized regime, the system exhibits a strongly direction-dependent sequence of correlated phases. Most notably, for fields in the $ac$-plane, we identify an additional high-field phase that is absent in the other principal planes and exists only within a restricted region of field-angle space. This phase structure is naturally explained by the competition between magnetic field and bond-directional exchange interactions. Using a symmetry-based description supported by microscopic calculations within the $J$-$K$-$\Gamma$ model, we show that off-diagonal $\Gamma$ exchange couples the ferromagnetic and staggered magnetic orders and thereby stabilizes the observed correlated high-field phases. The measured angular dependence of the critical fields is quantitatively captured by this theory, identifying $\Gamma$ exchange as the key interaction controlling the high-field response. These results clarify why the promise of a field-induced spin liquid -- the notion that suppressing magnetic order might reveal the underlying Kitaev physics -- remains unfulfilled in candidate materials: even when the Kitaev interaction is large, off-diagonal exchange stabilizes symmetry-constrained correlated phases that instead preempt the polarized state.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2026

Magnetic fields in monoclinic $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$ reveal rhombohedral inclusions underlying apparent oscillations

The majority of research on $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$ has focused on applying in-plane magnetic fields to suppress antiferromagnetic order and induce a quantum spin liquid (QSL). However, this effort has been complicated by the materials temperature-dependent crystal structure and sensitivity to strain-induced stacking disorder, making interpretation of field-induced phenomena contentious. The crystal structure of $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$ has recently been clarified as a function of temperature and sample size, motivating a reassessment of its magnetic properties and connection to proposed spin-liquid signatures. Here, we show that the monoclinic structure can be isolated in nanogram-scale crystals, enabling the study of Kitaev physics in a new regime. We focus on a structurally well-defined monoclinic crystal at low temperature and perform high-resolution magnetotropic susceptibility measurements in several crystal planes. Mapping the AFM phase boundary versus temperature, field, and orientation, we find the monoclinic phase diagram closely resembles rhombohedral crystals but is systematically shifted to higher transition temperatures and critical fields. For $B \parallel a$, we observe a two-step suppression of AFM order, indicating an intermediate ordered phase analogous to the ZZ2 phase reported in rhombohedral samples. Our results show that transitions previously observed beyond the AFM regime under in-plane fields arise from multiple shifted AFM phase boundaries associated with monoclinic inclusions, rather than non-magnetic phases. These findings indicate that features attributed to a QSL are instead due to an incomplete transition from the high-temperature monoclinic to the low-temperature rhombohedral structure. They also highlight the role of structural symmetry and sample homogeneity in interpreting field-induced phenomena in $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$ and related two-dimensional quantum magnets.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2026

Dynamical magnetotropic susceptibility as a new probe of Kitaev materials and beyond

The magnetotropic susceptibility $k(\omega)$ probes ultra-low-frequency uniform fluctuations. For a crystal mounted on an oscillating cantilever in a magnetic field, it is defined as the ratio of torque to angular-displacement amplitude. Its real and imaginary parts determine the oscillation-frequency shift and crystal-induced damping. It is a low-energy probe of uniform $q=0$ spin and charge degrees of freedom. We demonstrate this by deriving $k(\omega)$ within linear response theory for a generic correlated-electron Hamiltonian with charge and spin degrees of freedom. Although it covers metallic and insulating magnets, correlated paramagnets, and exotic quantum critical points, we focus on limiting cases. For insulating spin systems $k(0)$ is sensitive to magnetic anisotropy whereas its finite-frequency imaginary part probes uniform dynamical spin susceptibility even in spin-symmetric models. For metallic systems we identify when eddy currents cause low-frequency damping. Our numerical results focus on Kitaev-material magnetotropic response. Using auxiliary-field quantum Monte Carlo with machine-learning-based sign-problem optimization we compute $k(\omega)$ for several models proposed for $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$. The observed low-temperature scaling of $k(0)/T$ with $B/T$ results from dominant Kitaev couplings: parameter sets without dominant Kitaev coupling do not exhibit this scaling. It remains robust upon inclusion of optical phonons. Beyond the static response, $k''(\omega)$ for the $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$ parameter set reproducing the experimental $k(0)$ data shows local-moment features at high and low $T$, with a single peak at the Larmor frequency. Beyond Kitaev systems we highlight broader applications. Probing ultra-low-energy uniform charge fluctuations is pertinent to Kondo destruction quantum criticality, of broad interest in strange metallicity and unconventional superconductivity.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

Giant transverse magnetic fluctuations at the edge of re-entrant superconductivity in UTe$_{2}$

UTe$_{2}$ exhibits the remarkable phenomenon of re-entrant superconductivity, whereby the zero-resistance state reappears above 40 tesla after being suppressed with a field of around 10 tesla. One potential pairing mechanism, invoked in the related re-entrant superconductors UCoGe and URhGe, involves transverse fluctuations of a ferromagnetic order parameter. However, the requisite ferromagnetic order - present in both UCoGe and URhGe - is absent in UTe$_{2}$, and magnetization measurements show no sign of strong fluctuations. Here, we measure the magnetotropic susceptibility of UTe$_{2}$ across two field-angle planes. This quantity is sensitive to the magnetic susceptibility in a direction transverse to the applied magnetic field - a quantity that is not accessed in conventional magnetization measurements. We observe a very large decrease in the magnetotropic susceptibility over a broad range of field orientations, indicating a large increase in the transverse magnetic susceptibility. The three superconducting phases of UTe$_{2}$, including the high-field re-entrant phase, surround this region of enhanced susceptibility in the field-angle phase diagram. The strongest transverse susceptibility is found near the critical end point of the high-field metamagnetic transition, suggesting that quantum critical fluctuations of a field-induced magnetic order parameter may be responsible for the large transverse susceptibility, and may provide a pairing mechanism for field-induced superconductivity in UTe$_{2}$.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2024

Quantum Fluctuations Suppress the Critical Fields in BaCo$_2$(AsO$_4$)$_2$

Early efforts to realize exotic quantum ground states in frustrated magnets focused on frustration arising from the lattice geometry alone. Attention has shifted to bond-dependent anisotropic interactions, as well as further-neighbor interactions, on non-geometrically-frustrated lattices due to their greater versatility. The honeycomb magnet BaCo$_2$(AsO$_4$)$_2$ recently emerged as a candidate host for both bond-dependent (e.g. Kitaev) and third-neighbor ($J_3$) interactions, and has become a model experimental system due to its relatively low levels of disorder. Understanding the relative importance of different exchange interactions holds the key to achieving novel ground states, such as quantum spin liquids. Here, we use the magnetotropic susceptibility to map out the intermediate and high-field phase diagram of BaCo$_2$(AsO$_4$)$_2$ as a function of the out-of-plane magnetic field direction at $T = 1.6$ K. We show that the experimental data are qualitatively consistent with classical Monte Carlo results of the XXZ-$J_1$-$J_3$ model with small Kitaev and off-diagonal exchange couplings included. However, the calculated critical fields are systematically larger than the experimental values. Infinite-DMRG computations on the quantum model reveal that quantum corrections from a nearby ferromagnetic state are likely responsible for the suppressed critical fields. Together, our experiment and theory analyses demonstrate that, while quantum fluctuations play an important role in determining the phase diagram, most of the physics of BaCo$_2$(AsO$_4$)$_2$ can be understood in terms of the classical dynamics of long-range ordered states, leaving little room for the possibility of a quantum spin liquid.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2023

Scale-invariant magnetic anisotropy in $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$: A quantum Monte Carlo study

We compute the rotational anisotropy of the free energy of $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$ in an external magnetic field. This quantity, known as the magnetotropic susceptibility, $k$, relates to the second derivative of the free energy with respect to the angle of rotation. We have used approximation-free, auxiliary-field quantum Monte Carlo simulations for a realistic model of $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$ and optimized the path integral to alleviate the negative sign problem. This allows us to reach temperatures down to $30~\mathrm{K}$, an energy scale below the dominant Kitaev coupling. We demonstrate that the magnetotropic spin susceptibility in this model of $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$ displays scaling behavior $k = T f(B/T)$ at high temperatures. Once the uniform susceptibility departs from the Curie law (i.e., at the energy scale of the exchange interactions), it appears to transition to an emergent scalinglike behavior, characterized by a different function $f$ at lower temperatures, stemming from the locality of torque fluctuations. We observe a remarkable numerical match between experiment and simulations and we also find qualitative agreement with the pure Kitaev model. In comparison, for the XXZ Heisenberg Hamiltonian, the scaling $k = T f(B/T)$ breaks down at a temperature scale where the uniform spin susceptibility deviates from the Curie law and never reemerges at low temperatures.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2023

Magnetic field as a dynamic energy scale in quantum-critical CeCoIn$_5$

Whether magnetic field enters the quantum-critical dynamics as a competing energy scale in strange metals remains an open question. Using thermal impedance spectroscopy, we simultaneously measure the electronic specific heat and spin-relaxation dynamics of CeCoIn$_5$. Both properties show scale invariance with temperature and magnetic field, where a single energy scale governs their crossover. Magnetic field thus competes directly with temperature to set the infrared cutoff, establishing it as a dynamic energy scale in the critical dynamics of this strange metal.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2022

Magnetotropic susceptibility

The magnetotropic susceptibility is the thermodynamic coefficient associated with the rotational anisotropy of the free energy in an external magnetic field, and is closely related to the magnetic susceptibility. It emerges naturally in frequency-shift measurements of oscillating mechanical cantilevers, which are becoming an increasingly important tool in the quantitative study of the thermodynamics of modern condensed matter systems. Here we discuss the basic properties of the magnetotropic susceptibility as they relate to the experimental aspects of frequency-shift measurements, as well as to the interpretation of those experiments in terms of the intrinsic properties of the system under study.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2022

Energy-scale competition in the Hall resistivity of a strange metal

Anomalous transport behavior -- both longitudinal and Hall -- is the defining characteristic of the strange-metal state of High-Tc cuprates. The temperature, frequency, and magnetic field dependence of the resistivity is understood within strange metal phenomenology as resulting from energy-scale competition to set the inelastic relaxation rate. The anomalously strong temperature dependence of the Hall coefficient, however, is at odds with this phenomenology. Here we report measurements of the Hall resistivity in the strange metal state of cuprates over a broad range of magnetic fields and temperatures. The observed field and temperature dependent Hall resistivity at very high magnetic fields reveals a distinct high-field regime which is controlled by energy-scale competition. This extends the strange metal phenomenology in the cuprates to include the Hall resistivity and suggests, in particular, that the direct effect of magnetic field on the relaxation dynamics of quantum fluctuations may be at least partially responsible for the anomalous Hall resistivity of the strange metal state.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2020

Scale-Invariance of a Spin Liquid in High Magnetic Fields

In RuCl$_3$, inelastic neutron scattering and Raman spectroscopy reveal a continuum of non-spin-wave excitations that persists to high temperature, suggesting the presence of a spin liquid state on a honeycomb lattice. In the context of the Kitaev model, magnetic fields introduce finite interactions between the elementary excitations, and thus the effects of high magnetic fields - comparable to the spin exchange energy scale - must be explored. Here we report measurements of the magnetotropic coefficient - the second derivative of the free energy with respect to magnetic field orientation - over a wide range of magnetic fields and temperatures. We find that magnetic field and temperature compete to determine the magnetic response in a way that is independent of the large intrinsic exchange interaction energy. This emergent scale-invariant magnetic anisotropy provides evidence for a high degree of exchange frustration that favors the formation of a spin liquid state in RuCl$_3$.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2020

Scale-invariant magnetic anisotropy in RuCl$_3$ at high magnetic fields

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2020

One-Component Order Parameter in URu$_2$Si$_2$ Uncovered by Resonant Ultrasound Spectroscopy and Machine Learning

The unusual correlated state that emerges in URu$_2$Si$_2$ below T$_{HO}$ = 17.5 K is known as "hidden order" because even basic characteristics of the order parameter, such as its dimensionality (whether it has one component or two), are "hidden". We use resonant ultrasound spectroscopy to measure the symmetry-resolved elastic anomalies across T$_{HO}$. We observe no anomalies in the shear elastic moduli, providing strong thermodynamic evidence for a one-component order parameter. We develop a machine learning framework that reaches this conclusion directly from the raw data, even in a crystal that is too small for traditional resonant ultrasound. Our result rules out a broad class of theories of hidden order based on two-component order parameters, and constrains the nature of the fluctuations from which unconventional superconductivity emerges at lower temperature. Our machine learning framework is a powerful new tool for classifying the ubiquitous competing orders in correlated electron systems.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2019

Orbital effect and weak localization physics in the longitudinal magnetoresistance of the Weyl semimetals NbP, NbAs, TaP and TaAs

Weyl semimetals such as the TaAs family (TaAs, TaP, NbAs, NbP) host quasiparticle excitations resembling the long sought after Weyl fermions at special band-crossing points in the band structure denoted as Weyl nodes. They are predicted to exhibit a negative longitudinal magnetoresistance (LMR) due to the chiral anomaly if the Fermi energy is sufficiently close to the Weyl points. However, current jetting effects, i.e. current inhomogeneities caused by a strong, field-induced conductivity anisotropy in semimetals, have a similar experimental signature and therefore have hindered a determination of the intrinsic LMR in the TaAs family so far. This work investigates the longitudinal magnetoresistance of all four members of this family along the crystallographic $a$ and $c$ direction. Our samples are of similar quality as those previously studied in the literature and have a similar chemical potential as indicated by matching quantum oscillation (QO) frequencies. Care was taken to ensure homogeneous currents in all measurements. As opposed to previous studies where this was not done, we find a positive LMR that saturates in fields above 4 T in TaP, NbP and NbAs for $B||c$. Using Fermi-surface geometries from band structure calculations that had been confirmed by experiment, we show that this is the behaviour expected from a classical purely orbital effect, independent on the distance of the Weyl node to the Fermi energy. The TaAs family of compounds is the first to show such a simple LMR without apparent influences of scattering anisotropy. In configurations where the orbital effect is small, i.e. for $B||a$ in NbAs and NbP, we find a non-monotonous LMR including regions of negative LMR. We discuss a weak antilocalisation scenario as an alternative interpretation than the chiral anomaly for these results, since it can fully account for the overall field dependence.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2018

Chiral spin-order in some purported Kitaev spin-liquid compounds

We examine recent magnetic torque measurements in two compounds, $γ$-Li$_2$IrO$_3$ and RuCl$_3$, which have been discussed as possible realizations of the Kitaev model. The analysis of the reported discontinuity in torque, as an external magnetic field is rotated across the $c-$axis in both crystals, suggests that they have a translationally-invariant chiral spin-order of the from $<{\bf S}_i. ({\bf S}_j ~\times ~ {\bf S}_k)> \ne 0$ in the ground state and persisting over a very wide range of magnetic field and temperature. An extra-ordinary $|B|B^2$ dependence of the torque for small fields, beside the usual $B^2$ part, is predicted due to the chiral spin-order, and found to be consistent with experiments upon further analysis of the data. Other experiments such as inelastic scattering and thermal Hall effect and several questions raised by the discovery of chiral spin-order, including its topological consequences are discussed.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2018

Scale-invariant magnetoresistance in a cuprate superconductor

The anomalous metallic state in high-temperature superconducting cuprates is masked by the onset of superconductivity near a quantum critical point. Use of high magnetic fields to suppress superconductivity has enabled a detailed study of the ground state in these systems. Yet, the direct effect of strong magnetic fields on the metallic behavior at low temperatures is poorly understood, especially near critical doping, $x=0.19$. Here we report a high-field magnetoresistance study of thin films of \LSCO cuprates in close vicinity to critical doping, $0.161\leq x\leq0.190$. We find that the metallic state exposed by suppressing superconductivity is characterized by a magnetoresistance that is linear in magnetic field up to the highest measured fields of $80$T. The slope of the linear-in-field resistivity is temperature-independent at very high fields. It mirrors the magnitude and doping evolution of the linear-in-temperature resistivity that has been ascribed to Planckian dissipation near a quantum critical point. This establishes true scale-invariant conductivity as the signature of the strange metal state in the high-temperature superconducting cuprates.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2018

Spatially modulated heavy-fermion superconductivity in CeIrIn5

The ability to spatially modulate the electronic properties of solids has led to landmark discoveries in condensed matter physics as well as new electronic applications. Although crystals of strongly correlated metals exhibit a diverse set of electronic ground states, few approaches to spatially modulating their properties exist. Here we demonstrate spatial control over the superconducting state in mesoscale samples of the canonical heavy-fermion superconductor CeIrIn5. We use a focused ion beam (FIB) to pattern crystals on the microscale, which tailors the strain induced by differential thermal contraction into specific areas of the device. The resulting non-uniform strain fields induce complex patterns of superconductivity due to the strong dependence of the transition temperature on the strength and direction of strain. Electrical transport and magnetic imaging of devices with different geometry show that the obtained spatial modulation of superconductivity agrees with predictions based on finite element simulations. These results present a generic approach to manipulating electronic order on micrometer length scales in strongly correlated matter.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2018

Quantum limit transport and destruction of the Weyl nodes in TaAs

Weyl fermions are a new ingredient for correlated states of electronic matter. A key difficulty has been that real materials also contain non-Weyl quasiparticles, and disentangling the experimental signatures has proven challenging. We use magnetic fields up to 95 tesla to drive the Weyl semimetal TaAs far into its quantum limit (QL), where only the purely chiral 0th Landau levels (LLs) of the Weyl fermions are occupied. We find the electrical resistivity to be nearly independent of magnetic field up to 50 tesla: unusual for conventional metals but consistent with the chiral anomaly for Weyl fermions. Above 50 tesla we observe a two-order-of-magnitude increase in resistivity, indicating that a gap opens in the chiral LLs. Above 80 tesla we observe strong ultrasonic attenuation below 2 kelvin, suggesting a mesoscopically-textured state of matter. These results point the way to inducing new correlated states of matter in the QL of Weyl semimetals.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2018

Resonant torsion magnetometry in anisotropic quantum materials

Unusual behavior of quantum materials commonly arises from their effective low-dimensional physics, which reflects the underlying anisotropy in the spin and charge degrees of freedom. Torque magnetometry is a highly sensitive technique to directly quantify the anisotropy in quantum materials, such as the layered high-T$_c$ superconductors, anisotropic quantum spin-liquids, and the surface states of topological insulators. Here we introduce the magnetotropic coefficient $k=\partial^2 F/\partial θ^2$, the second derivative of the free energy F with respect to the angle $θ$ between the sample and the applied magnetic field, and report a simple and effective method to experimentally detect it. A sub-$μ$g crystallite is placed at the tip of a commercially available atomic force microscopy cantilever, and we show that $k$ can be quantitatively inferred from a shift in the resonant frequency under magnetic field. While related to the magnetic torque $τ=\partial F/\partial θ$, $k$ takes the role of torque susceptibility, and thus provides distinct insights into anisotropic materials akin to the difference between magnetization and magnetic susceptibility. The thermodynamic coefficient $k$ is discontinuous at second-order phase transitions and subject to Ehrenfest relations with the specific heat and magnetic susceptibility. We apply this simple yet quantitative method on the exemplary cases of the Weyl-semimetal NbP and the spin-liquid candidate RuCl$_3$, yet it is broadly applicable in quantum materials research.

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