Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Tunable emergent heterostructures in a prototypical correlated metal

Abstract

At the interface between two distinct materials, desirable properties, such as superconductivity, can be greatly enhanced1, or entirely new functionalities may emerge2. Similar to in artificially engineered heterostructures, clean functional interfaces alternatively exist in electronically textured bulk materials. Electronic textures emerge spontaneously due to competing atomic-scale interactions3, the control of which would enable a top-down approach for designing tunable intrinsic heterostructures. This is particularly attractive for correlated electron materials, where spontaneous heterostructures strongly affect the interplay between charge and spin degrees of freedom4. Here we report high-resolution neutron spectroscopy on the prototypical strongly correlated metal CeRhIn5, revealing competition between magnetic frustration and easy-axis anisotropy—a well-established mechanism for generating spontaneous superstructures5. Because the observed easy-axis anisotropy is field-induced and anomalously large, it can be controlled efficiently with small magnetic fields. The resulting field-controlled magnetic superstructure is closely tied to the formation of superconducting6 and electronic nematic textures7 in CeRhIn5, suggesting that in situ tunable heterostructures can be realized in correlated electron materials.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Interplay of magnetic superstructures and electronic textures in heavy fermion materials.
Fig. 2: Signatures of highly-tunable modulated magnetic superstructures in CeRhIn5.
Fig. 3: Magnetic excitations of CeRhIn5 in in-plane magnetic fields.
Fig. 4: Salient parameters of the effective spin model related to ANNNI framework5 to describe the field-tuned uniaxial anisotropy in CeRhIn5.

References

  1. Ge, J.-F. et al. Superconductivity above 100 K in single-layer FeSe films on doped SrTiO3. Nat. Mater. 14, 285–289 (2014).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. Reyren, N. et al. Superconducting interfaces between insulating oxides. Science 317, 1196–1199 (2007).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Mohottala, H. E. et al. Phase separation in superoxygenated La2–xSr x CuO4+y. Nat. Mater. 5, 377–382 (2006).

  4. Dagotto, E. Complexity in strongly correlated electronic systems. Science 309, 257–262 (2005).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. Selke, W. The ANNNI model—Theoretical analysis and experimental application. Phys. Rep. 170, 213–364 (1988).

    Article  ADS  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  6. Park, T. et al. Textured superconducting phase in the heavy fermion CeRhIn5. Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 077003 (2012).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. Ronning, F. et al. Electronic in-plane symmetry breaking at field-tuned quantum criticality in CeRhIn5. Nature 548, 313–317 (2017).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. Boschker, H. & Mannhart, J. Quantum-matter heterostructures. Annu. Rev. Condens. Matter Phys. 8, 145–164 (2017).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Alferov, Z. I. The history and future of semiconductor heterostructures. Semiconductors 32, 1–14 (1998).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. Park, T. et al. Hidden magnetism and quantum criticality in the heavy fermion superconductor CeRhIn5. Nature 440, 65–68 (2006).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  11. Moll, P. J. W. et al. Field-induced density wave in the heavy-fermion compound CeRhIn5. Nat. Commun. 6, 6663 (2015).

  12. Das, P. et al. Magnitude of the magnetic exchange interaction in the heavy-fermion antiferromagnet CeRhIn5. Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 246403 (2014).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  13. Fobes, D. M. et al. Low temperature magnetic structure of CeRhIn5 by neutron diffraction using absoption optimized samples. J. Phys. Condens. Matter 29, 17LT01 (2017).

  14. Raymond, S., Ressouche, E., Knebel, G., Aoki, D. & Flouquet, J. Magnetic structure of CeRhIn5 under magnetic field. J. Phys. Condens. Matter 19, 242204 (2007).

  15. Knebel, G. et al. Antiferromagnetism and superconductivity in CeRhIn5. J. Phys. Soc. Jpn 80, SA001 (2011).

  16. Aso, N. et al. Switching of magnetic ordering in CeRhIn5 under hydrostatic pressure. J. Phys. Soc. Jpn 78, 073703 (2009).

  17. Jiao, L.et al Fermi surface reconstruction and multiple quantum phase transitions in the antiferromagnet CeRhIn5. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 112, 673–678 2015).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  18. Shishido, H., Settai, R., Harima, H. & Onuki, Y. A drastic change of the Fermi surface at a critical pressure in CeRhIn5: dHvA study under pressure. J. Phys. Soc. Jpn 74, 1103–1106 (2005).

  19. Willers, T.et al Correlation between ground state and orbital anisotropy in heavy fermion materials. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 112, 2384–2388 2015).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  20. Fak, B. et al. Anomalous spin response in the non-centrosymmetric metal CePt3Si. J. Phys. Soc. Jpn 83, 063703 (2014).

  21. Moll, P. J. W. et al. Emergent magnetic anisotropy in the cubic heavy-fermion metal CeIn3. npj Quantum Mater. 2, 46 (2017).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  22. Borzi, R. A. et al. Formation of a nematic fluid at high fields in Sr3Ru2O7. Science 315, 214–217 (2007).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  23. Chuang, T. M. et al. Nematic electronic structure in the 'parent' state of the iron-based superconductor Ca(Fe1-xCox)(2)As2. Science 327, 181–184 (2010).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  24. Kivelson, S. A., Fradkin, E. & Emery, V. J. Electronic liquid-crystal phases of a doped Mott insulator. Nature 393, 550–553 (1998).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  25. Kitagawa, K., Mezaki, Y., Matsubayashi, K., Uwatoko, Y. & Takigawa, M. Crossover from commensurate to incommensurate antiferromagnetism in stoichiometric NaFeAs revealed by single-crystal 23Na,75As-NMR experiments. J. Phys. Soc. Jpn 80, 033705 (2011).

  26. Raymond, S. & Lapertot, G. Ising incommensurate spin resonance of CeCoIn5: A dynamical precursor of the Q phase. Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 037001 (2015).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  27. Tranquada, J. M. et al. Evidence for an incommensurate magnetic resonance in La2–xSr x CuO4. Phys. Rev. B 69, 174507 (2004).

  28. Wen, J. et al. Short-range incommensurate magnetic order near the superconducting phase boundary in Fe1+dTe1–xSe x . Phys. Rev. B 80, 104506 (2009).

  29. Baek, S. H. et al. Orbital-driven nematicity in FeSe. Nat. Mater. 14, 210–214 (2015).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  30. Glasbrenner, J. K. et al. Effect of magnetic frustration on nematicity and superconductivity in iron chalcogenides. Nat. Phys. 11, 953–958 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Ehlers, G., Podlesnyak, A. A., Niedziela, J., Iverson, E. B. & Sokol, P. E. The new cold neutron chopper spectrometer at the Spallation Neutron Source: design and performance. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 82, 085108 (2011).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  32. Bewley, R. I., Taylor, J. W., & Bennington, S. M. LET, a cold neutron multi-disk chopper spectrometer at ISIS. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A 637, 128–134 (2011).

  33. Suwa, H. & Todo, S. Markov chain Monte Carlo method without detailed balance. Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 120603 (2010).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge useful discussions with R. Baumbach, C. Pfleiderer, M. Garst, M. Votja, P. Böni and J. M. Lawrence. Work at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) was performed under the auspices of the US Department of Energy. LANL is operated by Los Alamos National Security for the National Nuclear Security Administration of DOE under contract DE-AC52-06NA25396. Research supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering under the project ‘Complex Electronic Materials’ (material synthesis and characterization) and the LANL Directed Research and Development program (neutron scattering, development of the spin wave model, mean-field computation and development of analysis software). Research conducted at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s (ORNL) Spallation Neutron Source was sponsored by the Scientific User Facilities Division, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, US Department of Energy. Experiments at the ISIS Pulsed Neutron and Muon Source were supported by a beam time allocation from the Science and Technology Facilities Council. We acknowledge the support of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, US Department of Commerce, in providing the neutron research facilities used in this work.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

N.J.G., P.D. and E.D.B. synthesized the single crystal samples; J.D.T. and F.R. carried out thermal and transport measurements; D.M.F., G.E., A.P., L.W.H., R.I.B., V.H., A.S. and M.J. performed the neutron spectroscopy measurements; D.M.F. wrote the software for analysing the neutron data; DMF and MJ analyzed the neutron data; M.J. supervised the experimental work; S.Z., S.Z.L. and C.D.B. developed the theoretical model and carried out all calculations; D.M.F., S.Z.L., C.D.B. and M.J. proposed and designed this study, and D.M.F., C.D.B. and M.J. wrote the manuscript; all authors discussed the data and commented on the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to M. Janoschek.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

4 Figures, 14 References

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Fobes, D.M., Zhang, S., Lin, SZ. et al. Tunable emergent heterostructures in a prototypical correlated metal. Nature Phys 14, 456–460 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-018-0060-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-018-0060-9

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing