TY - JOUR
T1 - Observation of an antiferromagnetic quantum critical point in high-purity LaNiO3
AU - Liu, Changjiang
AU - Humbert, Vincent F.C.
AU - Bretz-Sullivan, Terence M.
AU - Wang, Gensheng
AU - Hong, Deshun
AU - Wrobel, Friederike
AU - Zhang, Jianjie
AU - Hoffman, Jason D.
AU - Pearson, John E.
AU - Jiang, J. Samuel
AU - Chang, Clarence
AU - Suslov, Alexey
AU - Mason, Nadya
AU - Norman, M. R.
AU - Bhattacharya, Anand
N1 - Funding Information:
All work at Argonne including film growth, characterization, and magnetotransport measurements were supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division including support for F.W. via the Center for Predictive Simulation of Functional Materials. The use of facilities at the Center for Nanoscale Materials, an Office of Science user facility, was supported by the US Department of Energy, Basic Energy Sciences under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357. Dilution fridge measurements carried out by G.W., J.Z., and C.C. at the Argonne High-Energy Physics Division was supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, High-Energy Physics. Dilution fridge measurements at UIUC were carried out by V.F.C.H. and N.M., supported by the National Science Foundation under NSF DMR-1710437. Measurements at low temperatures and high magnetic fields were carried out at the NHMFL, which is supported by the NSF Cooperative agreement no. DMR-1644779 and the State of Florida. We thank Peter Littlewood, John Mitchell, and Andrew Millis for discussions.
PY - 2020/12/1
Y1 - 2020/12/1
N2 - Amongst the rare-earth perovskite nickelates, LaNiO3 (LNO) is an exception. While the former have insulating and antiferromagnetic ground states, LNO remains metallic and non-magnetic down to the lowest temperatures. It is believed that LNO is a strange metal, on the verge of an antiferromagnetic instability. Our work suggests that LNO is a quantum critical metal, close to an antiferromagnetic quantum critical point (QCP). The QCP behavior in LNO is manifested in epitaxial thin films with unprecedented high purities. We find that the temperature and magnetic field dependences of the resistivity of LNO at low temperatures are consistent with scatterings of charge carriers from weak disorder and quantum fluctuations of an antiferromagnetic nature. Furthermore, we find that the introduction of a small concentration of magnetic impurities qualitatively changes the magnetotransport properties of LNO, resembling that found in some heavy-fermion Kondo lattice systems in the vicinity of an antiferromagnetic QCP.
AB - Amongst the rare-earth perovskite nickelates, LaNiO3 (LNO) is an exception. While the former have insulating and antiferromagnetic ground states, LNO remains metallic and non-magnetic down to the lowest temperatures. It is believed that LNO is a strange metal, on the verge of an antiferromagnetic instability. Our work suggests that LNO is a quantum critical metal, close to an antiferromagnetic quantum critical point (QCP). The QCP behavior in LNO is manifested in epitaxial thin films with unprecedented high purities. We find that the temperature and magnetic field dependences of the resistivity of LNO at low temperatures are consistent with scatterings of charge carriers from weak disorder and quantum fluctuations of an antiferromagnetic nature. Furthermore, we find that the introduction of a small concentration of magnetic impurities qualitatively changes the magnetotransport properties of LNO, resembling that found in some heavy-fermion Kondo lattice systems in the vicinity of an antiferromagnetic QCP.
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U2 - 10.1038/s41467-020-15143-w
DO - 10.1038/s41467-020-15143-w
M3 - Article
C2 - 32179750
AN - SCOPUS:85082002710
VL - 11
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
SN - 2041-1723
IS - 1
M1 - 1402
ER -