We report magnetization, specific heat, and NMR investigations on YFe2Al10 over a wide range in temperature and magnetic field and zero field (NQR) measurements. Magnetic susceptibility, specific heat and spin-lattice relaxation rate divided by T (1/T1T) follow a weak power law (T^-0.4) temperature dependence, which is a signature of critical fluctuations of Fe moments. The value of the Sommerfeld-Wilson ratio and linear relation between 1/T1T and chi(T) suggest the existence of ferromagnetic correlations in this system. No magnetic ordering down to 50 mK in Cp(T) and the unusual temperature and field scaling of the bulk and NMR data are associated with a magnetic instability which drives the system to quantum criticality. The magnetic properties of the system are tuned by field wherein ferromagnetic fluctuations are suppressed and a crossover from quantum critical to FL behavior is observed with increasing magnetic field.
We report results of a muon spin relaxation ($mu$SR) study of YFe$_2$Al$_{10}$, a quasi-2D nearly-ferromagnetic metal in which unconventional quantum critical behavior is observed. No static Fe$^{2+}$ magnetism, with or without long-range order, is found down to 19~mK@. The dynamic muon spin relaxation rate~$lambda$ exhibits power-law divergences in temperature and magnetic field, the latter for fields that are too weak to affect the electronic spin dynamics directly. We attribute this to the proportionality of $lambda(omega_mu,T)$ to the dynamic structure factor~$S(omega_mu,T)$, where $omega_mu approx 10^5$--$10^7~mathrm{s}^{-1}$ is the muon Zeeman frequency. These results suggest critical divergences of $S(omega_mu,T)$ in both temperature and frequency. Power-law scaling and a 2D dissipative quantum XY (2D-DQXY) model both yield forms for $S(omega,T)$ that agree with neutron scattering data ($omega approx 10^{12}~mathrm{s}^{-1}$). Extrapolation to $mu$SR frequencies agrees semi-quantitatively with the observed temperature dependence of $lambda(omega_mu,T)$, but predicts frequency independence for $omega_mu ll T$ in extreme disagreement with experiment. We conclude that the quantum critical spin dynamics of YFe$_2$Al$_{10}$ are not well understood at low frequencies.
We present 11B NMR studies of the 2D frustrated dimer spin system SrCu2(BO3)2 in the field range 27-31 T covering the upper phase boundary of the 1/8 magnetization plateau, identified at 28.4 T. Our data provide a clear evidence that above 28.4 T the spin-superlattice of the 1/8 plateau is modified but does not melt even though the magnetization increases. Although this is precisely what is expected for a supersolid phase, the microscopic nature of this new phase is much more complex. We discuss the field-temperature phase diagram on the basis of our NMR data.
Na0.5CoO2 exhibits a metal-insulator transition at 53 K upon cooling. The nature of another transition at 88 K has not been fully clarified yet. We report the results of measurements of the electrical conductivity, the magnetic susceptibility and 23Na NMR on a powder sample of Na0.5CoO2, including the mapping of NMR spectra, as well as probing the spin-lattice relaxation rate and the spin-spin relaxation rate, in the temperature range between 30 K and 305 K. The NMR data reflect the transition at T_X very well but provide less evidence for the metal-insulator transition at T_MI. The temperature evolution of the shape of the spectra implies the formation of a staggered internal field below T_X, not accompained by a rearrangement of the electric charge distribution. Our results thus indicate that in Na0.5CoO2, an unusual type of magnetic ordering in the metallic phase precedes the onset of charge ordering, which finally induces an insulating ground state.
The electronic and superconducting properties associated with the topologically non-trivial bands in Weyl semimetals have recently attracted much attention. We report the microscopic properties of the type-I Weyl semimetal TaAs measured by $^{75}$As nuclear magnetic (quadrupole) resonance under zero and elevated magnetic fields over a wide temperature range up to 500 K. The magnetic susceptibility measured by the Knight shift $K$ is found to be negative at low magnetic fields and have a strong field ($B$) dependence as ln$B$ at $T$ = 1.56 K. Such nonlinear field-dependent magnetization can be well accounted for by Landau diamagnetism arising from the 3D linearly dispersed bands, and thus is a fingerprint of topological semimetals. We further study the low-energy excitations by the spin-lattice relaxation rate 1/$T_{1}$. At zero field and 30 K $leq Tleq$ 250 K, 1/$T_{1}T$ shows a $T^{2}$ variation due to Weyl nodes excitations. At $B sim$ 13 T, $1/T_1T$ exhibits the same $T$-dependence but with a smaller value, scaling with $K^2propto T^2$, which indicates that the Korringa relation also holds for a Weyl semimetal. Analysis of the Korringa ratio reveals that the energy range of the linear bands is about 250 K in TaAs.
$^{75}$As nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) measurements have been carried out to investigate the magnetic and electronic properties of the filled skutterudite metallic compound SrFe$_4$As$_{12}$. The temperature dependence of Knight shift $K$ determined by the NQR spectrum under a small magnetic field ($le$ 0.5 T) shows the similar temperature dependence of the magnetic susceptibility $chi$ which exhibits a broad maximum at $T^ast$ $sim$ 50 K. The nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate divided by temperature, 1/$T_1T$, increases with decreasing temperature and exhibits a broad maximum at $T$ $sim$ 70 K, similar to the case of $chi$. The temperature dependence of $K$ and $1/T_1T$ is reasonably explained by a simple model where we assume a concave-shaped band structure near the Fermi energy. Based on a Korringa ratio analysis using the $T_1$ and $K$ data, ferromagnetic spin fluctuations are found to exist in SrFe$_4$As$_{12}$. These results indicate that SrFe$_4$As$_{12}$ can be characterized to be a metal with ferromagnetic correlations and also the peculiar band structure responsible for the suppression of $1/T_1T$ and $K$ at low temperatures.