Condensed Matter Seminar

Andy Mckenzie
University of St. Andrews, Scotland

Thursday, October 26, 2006
1:00 pm in SPL 52

Formation of a nematic fluid at high fields in Sr₃Ru₂O₇

Abstract: Recently, we presented evidence supporting the existence of a novel quantum phase in the vicinity of a metamagnetic quantum critical point in Sr₃Ru₂O₇ [1]. In this talk, I describe an extensive follow-up project which shows that within this phase, the resistivity becomes highly anisotropic when a small in-plane field component is added to the large out-of-plane field that promotes the metamagnetic transition. The characteristics of this anisotropy will be discussed, and compared with previous intriguing work on semiconductor 2DEGs [2].

1. S.A. Grigera, P. Gegenwart, R. A. Borzi, F. Weickert, A. J. Schofield, R.S. Perry, T. Tayama, T. Sakakibara, Y. Maeno, A. G. Green & A. P. Mackenzie, Science 306, 1155 (2004) and references therein.
2. M. P. Lilly, K. B. Cooper, J. P. Eisenstein, L. N. Pfeiffer, and K. W. West, Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 395 (1999).