No Arabic abstract
We measured the polarized optical conductivity of URu$_2$Si$_2$ from room temperature down to 5 K, covering the Kondo state, the coherent Kondo liquid regime, and the hidden-order phase. The normal state is characterized by an anisotropic behavior between the ab plane and c axis responses. The ab plane optical conductivity is strongly influenced by the formation of the coherent Kondo liquid: a sharp Drude peak develops and a hybridization gap at 12 meV leads to a spectral weight transfer to mid-infrared energies. The c axis conductivity has a different behavior: the Drude peak already exists at 300 K and no particular anomaly or gap signature appears in the coherent Kondo liquid regime. When entering the hidden-order state, both polarizations see a dramatic decrease in the Drude spectral weight and scattering rate, compatible with a loss of about 50 % of the carriers at the Fermi level. At the same time a density-wave like gap appears along both polarizations at about 6.5 meV at 5 K. This gap closes respecting a mean field thermal evolution in the ab plane. Along the c axis it remains roughly constant and it fills up rather than closing.
The observation of Ising quasiparticles is a signatory feature of the hidden order phase of URu$_2$Si$_2$. In this paper we discuss its nature and the strong constraints it places on current theories of the hidden order. In the hastatic theory such anisotropic quasiparticles are naturally described described by resonant scattering between half-integer spin conduction electrons and integer-spin Ising moments. The hybridization that mixes states of different Kramers parity is spinorial; its role as an symmetry-breaking order parameter is consistent with optical and tunnelling probes that indicate its sudden development at the hidden order transition. We discuss the microscopic origin of hastatic order, identifying it as a fractionalization of three body bound-states into integer spin fermions and half-integer spin bosons. After reviewing key features of hastatic order and their broader implications, we discuss our predictions for experiment and recent measurements. We end with challenges both for hastatic order and more generally for any theory of the hidden order state in URu$_2$Si$_2$.
A second-order phase transition is associated with emergence of an order parameter and a spontaneous symmetry breaking. For the heavy fermion superconductor URu$_2$Si$_2$, the symmetry of the order parameter associated with its ordered phase below 17.5 K has remained ambiguous despite 30 years of research, and hence is called hidden order (HO). Here we use polarization resolved Raman spectroscopy to specify the symmetry of the low energy excitations above and below the HO transition. These excitations involve transitions between interacting heavy uranium 5f orbitals, responsible for the broken symmetry in the HO phase. From the symmetry analysis of the collective mode, we determine that the HO parameter breaks local vertical and diagonal reflection symmetries at the uranium sites, resulting in crystal field states with distinct chiral properties, which order to a commensurate chirality density wave ground state.
At T$_0$ = 17.5 K an exotic phase emerges from a heavy fermion state in {ur}. The nature of this hidden order (HO) phase has so far evaded explanation. Formation of an unknown quasiparticle (QP) structure is believed to be responsible for the massive removal of entropy at HO transition, however, experiments and ab-initio calculations have been unable to reveal the essential character of the QP. Here we use femtosecond pump-probe time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (tr-ARPES) to elucidate the ultrafast dynamics of the QP. We show how the Fermi surface is renormalized by shifting states away from the Fermi level at specific locations, characterized by vector $q_{<110>} = 0.56 pm 0.08$ {an}. Measurements of the temperature-time response reveal that upon entering the HO the QP lifetime in those locations increases from 42 fs to few hundred fs. The formation of the long-lived QPs is identified here as a principal actor of the HO.
Quantum materials are epitomized by the influence of collective modes upon their macroscopic properties. Relatively few examples exist, however, whereby coherence of the ground-state wavefunction directly contributes to the conductivity. Notable examples include the quantizing effects of high magnetic fields upon the 2D electron gas, the collective sliding of charge density waves subject to high electric fields, and perhaps most notably the macroscopic phase coherence that enables superconductors to carry dissipationless currents. Here we reveal that the low temperature hidden order state of URu$_2$Si$_2$ exhibits just such a connection between the quantum and macroscopic worlds -- under large voltage bias we observe non-linear contributions to the conductivity that are directly analogous to the manifestation of phase slips in one-dimensional superconductors [1], suggesting a complex order parameter for hidden order
This Topical Review describes the multitude of unconventional behaviors in the hidden order, heavy fermion, antiferromagnetic and superconducting phases of the intermetallic compound URu$_2$Si$_2$ when tuned with pressure, magnetic field, and substitutions for all three elements. Such `perturbations result in a variety of new phases beyond the mysterious hidden order that are only now being slowly understood through a series of state-of-the-science experimentation, along with an array of novel theoretical approaches. Despite all these efforts spanning more than 30 years, hidden order (HO) remains puzzling and non-clarified, and the search continues in 2019 into a fourth decade for its final resolution. Here we attempt to update the present situation of URu$_2$Si$_2$ importing the latest experimental results and theoretical proposals. First, let us consider the pristine compound as a function of temperature and report the recent measurements and models relating to its heavy Fermi liquid crossover, its HO and superconductivity (SC). Recent experiments and theories are surmized that address four-fold symmetry breaking (or nematicity), Isingness and unconventional excitation modes. Second, we review the pressure dependence of URu$_2$Si$_2$ and its transformation to antiferromagnetic long-range order. Next we confront the dramatic high magnetic-field phases requiring fields above 40 T. And finally, we attempt to answer how does random substitutions of other $5f$ elements for U, and $3d$, $4d$, and $5d$ elements for Ru, and even P for Si affect and transform the HO. Commensurately, recent theoretical models are summarized and then related to the intriguing experimental behavior.