Grüneisen parameter studies on heavy fermion quantum criticality

Giant magnetocaloric effect in spin supersolid candidate Na2BaCo(PO4)2

Supersolid, an exotic quantum state of matter that consists of particles forming an incompressible solid structure while simultaneously showing superfluidity of zero viscosity1, is one of the long-standing pursuits in fundamental research2,3. Although the initial report of 4He supersolid turned out to be an artefact4, this intriguing quantum matter has inspired enthusiastic investigations into ultracold quantum gases5-8. Nevertheless, the realization of supersolidity in condensed matter remains elusive. Here we find evidence for a quantum magnetic analogue of supersolid-the spin supersolid-in the recently synthesized triangular-lattice antiferromagnet Na2BaCo(PO4)2 (ref. 9). Notably, a giant magnetocaloric effect related to the spin supersolidity is observed in the demagnetization cooling process, manifesting itself as two prominent valley-like regimes, with the lowest temperature attaining below 100 mK. Not only is there an experimentally determined series of critical fields but the demagnetization cooling profile also shows excellent agreement with the theoretical simulations with an easy-axis Heisenberg model. Neutron diffractions also successfully locate the proposed spin supersolid phases by revealing the coexistence of three-sublattice spin solid order and interlayer incommensurability indicative of the spin superfluidity. Thus, our results reveal a strong entropic effect of the spin supersolid phase in a frustrated quantum magnet and open up a viable and promising avenue for applications in sub-kelvin refrigeration, especially in the context of persistent concerns about helium shortages10,11.

Magnetically Enhanced Thermoelectric Performance of Ti0.75NiSb+x mol % Fe (x = 0-5) Nanocomposites

Ti_0.75NiSb is a half-Heusler compound with low lattice thermal conductivity due to a large number of cation vacancies. However, the higher carrier concentration limits the improvement of its thermoelectric performance. In this paper, magnetic Fe nanoparticles with a size of 30 nm are composited into Ti_0.75NiSb in the form of the second phase. The charge transfer between Fe nanoparticles and Ti_0.75NiSb leads to a decrease in carrier concentration. The strong interaction between the magnetic moment and carriers enhances the electron scattering, so that the scattering factor increases and the mobility decreases. The combined effect results in an increase of about 10% in the Seebeck coefficient and a decrease by about 14% in the electronic thermal conductivity at 873 K for the composite Ti_0.75NiSb+2 mol % Fe. Meanwhile, the magnetic Fe nanoparticles provide additional scattering centers, leading to a decrease in lattice thermal conductivity. As a result, a zT value of 0.4 at 873 K is achieved for the composite Ti_0.75NiSb+2 mol % Fe, which is 21% higher than that of Ti_0.75NiSb. This work demonstrates that the compositing magnetic nanoparticles Fe can enhance the thermoelectric performance of Ti_0.75NiSb.

Elastocaloric determination of the phase diagram of Sr2RuO4

One of the main developments in unconventional superconductivity in the past two decades has been the discovery that most unconventional superconductors form phase diagrams that also contain other strongly correlated states. Many systems of interest are therefore close to more than one instability, and tuning between the resultant ordered phases is the subject of intense research¹. In recent years, uniaxial pressure applied using piezoelectric-based devices has been shown to be a particularly versatile new method of tuning^2,3, leading to experiments that have advanced our understanding of the fascinating unconventional superconductor Sr₂RuO₄ (refs. ^4–9). Here we map out its phase diagram using high-precision measurements of the elastocaloric effect in what we believe to be the first such study including both the normal and the superconducting states. We observe a strong entropy quench on entering the superconducting state, in excellent agreement with a model calculation for pairing at the Van Hove point, and obtain a quantitative estimate of the entropy change associated with entry to a magnetic state that is observed in proximity to the superconductivity. The phase diagram is intriguing both for its similarity to those seen in other families of unconventional superconductors and for extra features unique, so far, to Sr₂RuO₄.

The phase diagram of the unconventional superconductor Sr₂RuO₄ in both normal and superconducting states is mapped out using high-precision measurements of the elastocaloric effect, showing similarities to other unconventional superconductors as well as unique features.

Anisotropy-driven quantum criticality in an intermediate valence system

Intermetallic compounds containing f-electron elements have been prototypical materials for investigating strong electron correlations and quantum criticality (QC). Their heavy fermion ground state evoked by the magnetic f-electrons is susceptible to the onset of quantum phases, such as magnetism or superconductivity, due to the enhanced effective mass (m^*) and a corresponding decrease of the Fermi temperature. However, the presence of f-electron valence fluctuations to a non-magnetic state is regarded an anathema to QC, as it usually generates a paramagnetic Fermi-liquid state with quasiparticles of moderate m^*. Such systems are typically isotropic, with a characteristic energy scale T₀ of the order of hundreds of kelvins that require large magnetic fields or pressures to promote a valence or magnetic instability. Here we show the discovery of a quantum critical behaviour and a Lifshitz transition under low magnetic field in an intermediate valence compound α-YbAlB₄. The QC origin is attributed to the anisotropic hybridization between the conduction and localized f-electrons. These findings suggest a new route to bypass the large valence energy scale in developing the QC.

The nature of quantum criticality in intermetallic f-electron compounds exhibiting valence fluctuations is not well understood. Here, using a combination of experimental techniques, the authors attribute quantum criticality in YbAlB₄ to the anisotropic hybridization between the conduction and f-electrons.

Learning the Effective Spin Hamiltonian of a Quantum Magnet

To understand the intriguing many-body states and effects in the correlated quantum materials, inference of the microscopic effective Hamiltonian from experiments constitutes an important yet very challenging inverse problem. Here we propose an unbiased and efficient approach learning the effective Hamiltonian through the many-body analysis of the measured thermal data. Our approach combines the strategies including the automatic gradient and Bayesian optimization with the thermodynamics many-body solvers including the exact diagonalization and the tensor renormalization group methods. We showcase the accuracy and powerfulness of the Hamiltonian learning by applying it firstly to the thermal data generated from a given spin model, and then to realistic experimental data measured in the spin-chain compound copper nitrate and triangular-lattice magnet TmMgGaO4. The present automatic approach constitutes a unified framework of many-body thermal data analysis in the studies of quantum magnets and strongly correlated materials in general.

Quasi-1D XY antiferromagnet Sr2Ni(SeO3)2Cl2 at Sakai-Takahashi phase diagram

Uniform quasi-one-dimensional integer spin compounds are of interest as a potential realization of the Haldane conjecture of a gapped spin liquid. This phase, however, has to compete with magnetic anisotropy and long-range ordered phases, the implementation of which depends on the ratio of interchain J′ and intrachain J exchange interactions and both uniaxial D and rhombic E single-ion anisotropies. Strontium nickel selenite chloride, Sr₂Ni(SeO₃)₂Cl₂, is a spin-1 chain system which passes through a correlations regime at T_max ~ 12 K to long-range order at T_N = 6 K. Under external magnetic field it experiences the sequence of spin-flop at B_c1 = 9.0 T and spin-flip transitions B_c2 = 23.7 T prior to full saturation at B_sat = 31.0 T. Density functional theory provides values of the main exchange interactions and uniaxial anisotropy which corroborate the experimental findings. The values of J′/J = 0.083 and D/J = 0.357 place this compound into a hitherto unoccupied sector of the Sakai-Takahashi phase diagram.

Pristine quantum criticality in a Kondo semimetal

The observation of quantum criticality in diverse classes of strongly correlated electron systems has been instrumental in establishing ordering principles, discovering new phases, and identifying the relevant degrees of freedom and interactions. At focus so far have been insulators and metals. Semimetals, which are of great current interest as candidate phases with nontrivial topology, are much less explored in experiments. Here, we study the Kondo semimetal CeRu4Sn6 by magnetic susceptibility, specific heat, and inelastic neutron scattering experiments. The power-law divergence of the magnetic Grünesien ratio reveals that, unexpectedly, this compound is quantum critical without tuning. The dynamical energy over temperature scaling in the neutron response throughout the Brillouin zone and the temperature dependence of the static uniform susceptibility, indicate that temperature is the only energy scale in the criticality. Such behavior, which has been associated with Kondo destruction quantum criticality in metallic systems, could be generic in the semimetal setting.

Universal Thermodynamic Signature of Self-Dual Quantum Critical Points

Self-duality is an algebraic structure of certain critical theories, which is not encoded in the scaling dimensions and critical exponents. In this work, a universal thermodynamic signature of self-dual quantum critical points (QCPs) is proposed. It is shown that the Grüneisen ratio at a self-dual QCP remains finite as T→0, which is in sharp contrast to its universal divergence at a generic QCP without self-duality, Γ(T,g_{c})∼T^{-1/zν}. This conclusion is drawn based on the hyperscaling theory near the QCP, and has far-reaching implications for experiments and numerical simulations.

Magnetocaloric effect as a signature of quantum level-crossing for a spin-gapped system

Recent research dealing with magnetocaloric effect (MCE) study of antiferromagnetic (AFM) low dimensional spin systems have revealed a number of fascinating ground-state crossover characteristics upon application of external magnetic field. Herein, through MCE investigation we have explored field-induced quantum level-crossing characteristics of one such spin system: [Formula: see text] (NCP), an AFM spin 1/2 dimer. Experimental magnetization and specific heat data are presented and the data have been employed to evaluate entropy, magnetic energy and magnetocaloric properties. We witness a sign change in magnetic Grüneisen parameter across the level-crossing field B _C . An adiabatic cooling is observed at low temperature by tracing the isentropic curves in temperature-magnetic field plane. Energy-level crossover characteristics in NCP interpreted through MCE analysis are well consistent with the observations made from magnetization and specific heat data.

Criticality-Enhanced Magnetocaloric Effect in Quantum Spin Chain Material Copper Nitrate

In this work, a systematic study of Cu(NO3)2·2.5 H2O (copper nitrate hemipentahydrate, CN), an alternating Heisenberg antiferromagnetic chain model material, is performed with multi-technique approach including thermal tensor network (TTN) simulations, first-principles calculations, as well as magnetization measurements. Employing a cutting-edge TTN method developed in the present work, we verify the couplings J = 5.13 K, α = 0.23(1) and Landé factors g∥= 2.31, g⊥ = 2.14 in CN, with which the magnetothermal properties have been fitted strikingly well. Based on first-principles calculations, we reveal explicitly the spin chain scenario in CN by displaying the calculated electron density distributions, from which the distinct superexchange paths are visualized. On top of that, we investigated the magnetocaloric effect (MCE) in CN by calculating its isentropes and magnetic Grüneisen parameter. Prominent quantum criticality-enhanced MCE was uncovered near both critical fields of intermediate strengths as 2.87 and 4.08 T, respectively. We propose that CN is potentially a very promising quantum critical coolant.