Related papers: The transport-structural correspondence across the…
Mechanical strain is a powerful technique for tuning electronic structure and interactions in quantum materials. In a system with tetragonal symmetry, a tunable uniaxial in-plane strain can be used to probe nematic correlations in the same…
The interplay of structural and electronic phases in iron-based superconductors is a central theme in the search for the superconducting pairing mechanism. While electronic nematicity, defined as the breaking of four-fold symmetry triggered…
We investigate the connection between the transport properties and the thermodynamics of electronic systems with a tendency to form broken-symmetry mesophases evocative of the physics of liquid crystals. Through a hydrodynamic approach to…
The phase diagram of the iron arsenides is dominated by a magnetic and a structural phase transition, which need to be suppressed in order for superconductivity to appear. The proximity between the two transition temperature lines indicates…
The concept of an electronically-driven breaking of the rotational symmetry of a crystal, without involving magnetic order, has found experimental support in several systems, from semiconductor heterostructures and ruthenates, to cuprate…
Nematic order in the iron-based superconductors is closely tied to a lattice distortion and a structural transition from tetragonal to orthorhombic symmetry. External stress of the appropriate symmetry acts as a conjugate field of the…
We use transport and neutron scattering to study electronic, structural, and magnetic properties of the electron-doped BaFe$_{2-x}$Ni$_x$As$_2$ iron pnictides in the external stress free detwinned state. Using a specially designed in-situ…
Strongly interacting electrons can exhibit novel collective phases, among which the electronic nematic phases are perhaps the most surprising as they spontaneously break rotational symmetry of the underlying crystal lattice. The electron…
The nematic instability of iron-based superconductors is an undebatable ingredient of the physics of iron-based superconductors. Yet, its origin remains enigmatic as it involves a fermiology with an intricate interplay of lattice-, orbital-…
Within the Landau paradigm of continuous phase transitions, ordered states of matter are characterized by a broken symmetry. Although the broken symmetry is usually evident, determining the driving force behind the phase transition is often…
We report the observation of a nonlinear elastoresistivity response for the prototypical underdoped iron pnictide Ba(Fe$_{0.975}$Co$_{0.025}$)$_2$As$_2$. Our measurements reveal a large quadratic term in the isotropic ($A_{1g}$) electronic…
We present x-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) and neutron diffraction measurements on the slightly underdoped iron pnictide superconductor Ba(1-x)K(x)Fe2As2, Tc = 32K. Below the magnetic transition temperature Tm = 70K, both techniques show an…
Electronic nematicity in iron pnictide materials has been extensively studied by various experimental techniques, yet its heat capacity anomaly at the phase transition has not been examined quantitatively. In this work we review the…
Many of the iron pnictides have strongly anisotropic normal-state characteristics, important for the exotic magnetic and superconducting behavior these materials exhibit. Yet, the origin of the observed anisotropy is unclear. Electronically…
The driving forces behind electronic nematicity in the iron pnictides remain hotly debated. We use atomic-resolution variable-temperature scanning tunneling spectroscopy to provide the first direct visual evidence that local electronic…
Electronic nematicity, the breaking of the crystal lattice rotational symmetry by the electronic fluid, is a fascinating quantum state of matter. Recently, BaNi$_2$As$_2$ has emerged as a promising candidate for a novel type of nematicity…
Electrical resistivity measurements of detwinned single crystals of the representative iron arsenide Ba(Fe$_{1-x}$Co$_x$)$_2$As$_2$ reveal a dramatic in-plane anisotropy associated with the tetragonal-to-orthorhombic structural transition…
The mechanism behind the nematicity of FeSe is not known. Through elastoresitivity measurements it has been shown to be an electronic instability. However, so far measurements have extended only to small strains, where the response is…
In liquid-crystalline elastomers, the nematic order parameter and the induced strain vary smoothly across the isotropic-nematic transition, without the expected first-order discontinuity. To investigate this smooth variation, we measure the…
We propose and study a two-orbital lattice extension of the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model in the large-$N$ limit. The phase diagram of this model features a high temperature isotropic strange metal which undergoes a first-order thermal transition…