No Arabic abstract
Rare $d$-electron derived heavy-fermion properties of the solid-solution series LaCu$_3$Ru$_x$Ti$_{4-x}$O$_{12}$ were studied for $1 leq x leq 4$ by resistivity, susceptibility, specific-heat measurements, and magnetic-resonance techniques. The pure ruthenate ($x = 4$) is a heavy-fermion metal characterized by a resistivity proportional to $T^2$ at low temperatures $T$. The coherent Kondo lattice formed by the localized Ru 4$d$ electrons is screened by the conduction electrons leading to strongly enhanced effective electron masses. By increasing titanium substitution the Kondo lattice becomes diluted resulting in single-ion Kondo properties like in the paradigm $4f$-based heavy-fermion compound Ce$_x$La$_{1-x}$Cu$_{2.05}$Si$_2$ [M. Ocko {em et al.}, Phys. Rev. B textbf{64}, 195106 (2001)]. In LaCu$_3$Ru$_x$Ti$_{4-x}$O$_{12}$ the heavy-fermion behavior finally breaks down on crossing the metal-to-insulator transition close to $x = 2$.
The solid solution between the ferromagnetic metal SrRuO$_3$ and the enhanced paramagnetic metal SrRhO$_3$ was recently reported [K. Yamaura et al., Phys. Rev. B 69 (2004) 024410], and an unexpected feature was found in the specific heat data at $x$=0.9 of SrRu$_{1-x}$Rh$_x$O$_3$. The feature was reinvestigated further by characterizing additional samples with various Ru concentrations in the vicinity of $x$=0.9. Specific heat and magnetic susceptibility data indicate that the feature reflects a peculiar magnetism of the doped perovskite, which appears only in the very narrow composition range 0.85$<$$x$$le$0.95.
Triple-layered ruthenate Sr$_4$Ru$_3$O$_{10}$ shows a first-order itinerant metamagnetic transition for in-plane magnetic fields. Our experiments revealed rather surprising behavior in the low-temperature transport properties near this transition. The in-plane magnetoresistivity $rho$$_{ab}$(H) exhibits ultrasharp steps as the magnetic field sweeps down through the transition. Temperature sweeps of $rho$$_{ab}$ for fields within the transition regime show non-metallic behavior in the up-sweep cycle of magnetic field, but show a significant drop in the down-sweep cycle. These observations indicate that the transition occurs via a new electronic phase separation process; a lowly polarized state is mixed with a ferromagnetic state within the transition regime.
The Berry curvature in magnetic systems is attracting interest due to the potential tunability of topological features via the magnetic structure. $f$-electrons, with their large spin-orbit coupling, abundance of non-collinear magnetic structures and high electronic tunability, are attractive candidates to search for tunable topological properties. In this study, we measure anomalous Hall effect (AHE) in the distorted kagom$acute{e}$ heavy fermion antiferromagnet U$_3$Ru$_4$Al$_{12}$. A large intrinsic AHE in high fields reveals the presence of a large Berry curvature. Moreover, the fields required to obtain the large Berry curvature are significantly different between $B parallel a$ and $B parallel a^*$, providing a mechanism to control the topological response in this system. Theoretical calculations illustrate that this sensitivity may be due to the heavy fermion character of the electronic structure. These results shed light on the Berry curvature of a strongly correlated band structure in magnetically frustrated heavy fermion materials, but also emphasize 5$f$-electrons as an ideal playground for studying field-tuned topological states.
Successive magnetic phase transitions at $T_1$=17.5 K and $T_2$=18.5 K in Gd$_3$Ru$_4$Al$_{12}$, with a distorted kagome lattice of Gd ions, is studied using resonant X-ray diffraction with polarization analysis. It has been suggested that in this compound the $S=7/2$ spins on the nearest-neighbor Gd-triangle form a ferromagnetic trimer and the Gd lattice can be effectively considered as an antiferromagnetic triangular lattice of $S=21/2$ spin trimers [S. Nakamura et al., Phys. Rev. B 98, 054410 (2018)]. We show that the magnetic order in this system is described by an incommensurate wave vector $q$~(0.27, 0, 0), which varies slightly with temperature. In the low temperature phase below $T_1$, the experimental results are well explained by considering that the spin trimers form a helical order with both the $c$-axis and $c$-plane components. In the intermediate phase above $T_1$, the $c$-axis component vanishes, resulting in a sinusoical structure within the $c$-plane. The sinusoidal-helical transition at $T_1$ can be regarded as an ordering of chiral degree of freedom, which is degenerate in the intermediate phase.
Sr$_4$Ru$_3$O$_{10}$, the $n$ = 3 member of the Ruddlesden-Popper type ruthenate Sr$_{n+1}$Ru$_n$O$_{3n+1}$, is known to exhibit a peculiar metamagnetic transition in an in-plane magnetic field. However, the nature of both the temperature- and field-dependent phase transitions remains as a topic of debate. Here, we have investigated the magnetic transitions of Sr$_4$Ru$_3$O$_{10}$ via single-crystal neutron diffraction measurements. At zero field, we find that the system undergoes a ferromagnetic transition with both in-plane and out-of-plane magnetic components at $T_{c}$ ~ 100 K. Below $T^{*}$ ~ 50 K, the magnetic moments incline continuously toward the out-of-plane direction. At $T$ ~ 1.5 K, where the spins are nearly aligned along the $c$ axis, a spin reorientation occurs above a critical field $B_c$, giving rise to a spin component perpendicular to the plane defined by the field direction and the $c$ axis. We suggest that both the temperature- and field-driven spin reorientations are associated with a change in the magnetocrystalline anisotropy, which is strongly coupled to the lattice degrees of freedom. This study elucidates the long-standing puzzles on the zero-field magnetic orders of Sr$_4$Ru$_3$O$_{10}$ and provides new insights into the nature of the field-induced metamagnetic transition.