No Arabic abstract
Orbital degrees of freedom in condensed matters could play important roles in forming a variety of exotic electronic states by interacting with conduction electrons. In 4f electron systems, because of strong intra-atomic spin-orbit coupling, an orbitally degenerate state inherently carries quadrupolar degrees of freedom. The present work has focussed on a purely quadrupole-active system PrIr2Zn20 showing superconductivity in the presence of an antiferroquadrupole order at TQ = 0.11 K. We observed non-Fermi liquid (NFL) behaviors emerging in the electrical resistivity and the 4f contribution to the specific heat, C_4f, in the paramagnetic state at T > TQ. Moreover, in magnetic fields below 6 T, all data set of the electrical resistivity and C_4f(T) are well scaled with characteristic temperatures T0s. This is the first observation of the NFL state in the nonmagnetic quadrupole-active system, whose origin is intrinsically different from that observed in the vicinity of the conventional quantum critical point. It implies possible formation of a quadrupole Kondo lattice resulting from hybridization between the quadrupoles and the conduction electrons. Below 0.13 K, the electrical resistivity and C_4f(T) exhibit anomalies as B approaches 5 T. This is the manifestation of a field-induced crossover toward a Fermi-liquid ground state in the quadrupole Kondo lattice.
We discuss possible competition between magnetic and quadrupole Kondo effects in non-Kramers doublet systems under cubic symmetry. The quadrupole Kondo effect leads to non-Fermi-liquid (NFL) ground state, while the magnetic one favors ordinary Fermi liquid (FL). In terms of the $j$-$j$ coupling scheme, we emphasize that the orbital fluctuation must develop in the vicinity of the NFL-FL boundary. We demonstrate a change of behavior in the f-electron entropy by the Wilsons numerical renormalization-group (NRG) method on the basis of the extended two-channel Kondo exchange model. We present implications to extensively investigated PrT$_{2}$X$_{20}$ (T=Ti, V, Ir; X=Al, Zn) systems that exhibit both quadrupole ordering and peculiar superconductivity. We also discuss the magnetic-field effect which lifts weakly the non-Kramers degeneracy. Our model also represents the FL state accompanied by a free magnetic spin as a consequence of stronger competition between the magnetic and the quadrupole Kondo effects.
Heavy electron metals on the verge of a quantum phase transition to magnetism show a number of unusual non-fermi liquid properties which are poorly understood. This article discusses in a general way various theoretical aspects of this phase transition with an eye toward understanding the non-fermi liquid phenomena. We suggest that the non-Fermi liquid quantum critical state may have a sharp Fermi surface with power law quasiparticles but with a volume not set by the usual Luttinger rule. We also discuss the possibility that the electronic structure change associated with the possible Fermi surface reconstruction may diverge at a different time/length scale from that associated with magnetic phenomena.
The phase diagram of BaVS3 is studied under pressure using resistivity measurements. The temperature of the metal to nonmagnetic Mott insulator transition decreases under pressure, and vanishes at the quantum critical point p_cr=20kbar. We find two kinds of anomalous conducting states. The high-pressure metallic phase is a non-Fermi liquid described by Delta rho = T^n where n=1.2-1.3 at 1K < T < 60K. At p<p_cr, the transition is preceded by a wide precursor region with critically increasing resistivity which we ascribe to the opening of a soft Coulomb gap.
Quantum well states appear in metallic thin films due to the confinement of the wave function by the film interfaces. Using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we unexpectedly observe quantum well states in fractured single crystals of CeCoIn$_5$. We confirm that confinement occurs by showing that these states binding energies are photon-energy independent and are well described with a phase accumulation model, commonly applied to quantum well states in thin films. This indicates that atomically flat thin films can be formed by fracturing hard single crystals. For the two samples studied, our observations are explained by free-standing flakes with thicknesses of 206 and 101 r{A}. We extend our analysis to extract bulk properties of CeCoIn$_5$. Specifically, we obtain the dispersion of a three-dimensional band near the zone center along in-plane and out-of-plane momenta. We establish part of its Fermi surface, which corresponds to a hole pocket centered at $Gamma$. We also reveal a change of its dispersion with temperature, a signature that may be caused by the Kondo hybridization.
Strong electron correlations can give rise to extraordinary properties of metals with renormalized quasiparticles which are at the basis of Landaus Fermi liquid theory. Near a quantum critical point, these quasiparticles can be destroyed and non-Fermi liquid behavior ensues. YbRh$_2$Si$_2$ is a prototypical correlated metal as it exhibits quasiparticles formation, formation of Kondo lattice coherence and quasiparticle destruction at a field-induced quantum critical point. Here we show how, upon lowering the temperature, the Kondo lattice coherence develops and finally gives way to non-Fermi liquid electronic excitations. By measuring the single-particle excitations through scanning tunneling spectroscopy down to 0.3 K, we find the Kondo lattice peak emerging below the Kondo temperature $T_{rm K} sim$ 25 K, yet this peak displays a non-trivial temperature dependence with a strong increase around 3.3 K. At the lowest temperature and as a function of an external magnetic field, the width of this peak is minimized in the quantum critical regime. Our results provide a striking demonstration of the non-Fermi liquid electronic excitations in quantum critical metals, thereby elucidating the strange-metal phenomena that have been ubiquitously observed in strongly correlated electron materials.