Muon spin relaxation and emergence of disorder-induced unconventional dynamic magnetic fluctuations in Dy2Zr2O7.

The disordered pyrochlore oxide Dy2Zr2O7shows the signatures of field-induced spin freezing with remnant zero-point spin-ice entropy at 5 kOe magnetic field. We have performed zero-field and longitudinal field Muon spin relaxation (µSR) studies on Dy2Zr2O7. Our zero field studies reveal the absence of both long-range ordering and spin freezing down to 62 mK. TheµSR relaxation rate exhibits a temperature-independent plateau below 4 K, indicating a dynamic ground state of fluctuating spins similar to the well-known spin ice system Dy2Ti2O7. The low-temperature spin fluctuations persist in the longitudinal field of 20 kOe as well and show unusual field dependence of the relaxation rate, which is uncommon for a spin-liquid system. Our results, combined with the previous studies do not show any evidence of spin ice or spin glass ground state, rather point to a disorder-induced dynamic magnetic ground state in the Dy2Zr2O7material.

Fermi-crossing Type-II Dirac fermions and topological surface states in NiTe2.

Transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) offer an ideal platform to experimentally realize Dirac fermions. However, typically these exotic quasiparticles are located far away from the Fermi level, limiting the contribution of Dirac-like carriers to the transport properties. Here we show that NiTe2 hosts both bulk Type-II Dirac points and topological surface states. The underlying mechanism is shared with other TMDs and based on the generic topological character of the Te p-orbital manifold. However, unique to NiTe2, a significant contribution of Ni d orbital states shifts the energy of the Type-II Dirac point close to the Fermi level. In addition, one of the topological surface states intersects the Fermi energy and exhibits a remarkably large spin splitting of 120 meV. Our results establish NiTe2 as an exciting candidate for next-generation spintronics devices.

Pressure engineering of the Dirac fermions in quasi-one-dimensional Tl2Mo6Se6.

Topological band dispersions other than the standard Dirac or Weyl fermions have garnered the increasing interest in materials science. Among them, the cubic Dirac fermions were recently proposed in the family of quasi-one-dimensional (q-1D) conductors A2Mo6X6 (A = Na, K, In, Tl; X = S, Se, Te), where the band crossing is characterized by a linear dispersion in one k-space direction but the cubic dispersion in the plane perpendicular to it. It is not yet clear, however, how the external perturbations can alter these nontrivial carriers and ultimately induce a new distinct quantum phase. Here we study the evolution of Dirac fermions, in particular the cubic Dirac crossing, under external pressure in the representative q-1D Tl2Mo6Se6 via the first-principles calculations. Specifically, it is found that the topological properties, including the bulk Dirac crossings and the topological surface states, change progressively under pressure up to 50 GPa where it undergoes a structural transition from the hexagonal phase to body-centered tetragonal phase. Above 50 GPa, the system is more likely to be topologically trivial. Further, we also investigate its phonon spectra, which reveals a gradual depletion of the negative phonon modes with pressure, consistent with the more three-dimensional Fermi surface in the high-pressure phase. Our work may provide a useful guideline for further experimental search and the band engineering of the topologically nontrivial fermions in this intriguing state of matter.

Discovery of slow magnetic fluctuations and critical slowing down in the pseudogap phase of YBa2Cu3O y.

The origin of the pseudogap region below a temperature T* is at the heart of the mysteries of cuprate high-temperature superconductors. Unusual properties of the pseudogap phase, such as broken time-reversal and inversion symmetry are observed in several symmetry-sensitive experiments: polarized neutron diffraction, optical birefringence, dichroic angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, second harmonic generation, and polar Kerr effect. These properties suggest that the pseudogap region is a genuine thermodynamic phase and are predicted by theories invoking ordered loop currents or other forms of intra-unit-cell (IUC) magnetic order. However, muon spin rotation (µSR) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments do not see the static local fields expected for magnetic order, leaving room for skepticism. The magnetic resonance probes have much longer time scales, however, over which local fields could be averaged by fluctuations. The observable effect of the fluctuations in magnetic resonance is then dynamic relaxation. We have measured dynamic muon spin relaxation rates in single crystals of YBa2Cu3O y (6.72 < y < 6.95) and have discovered "slow" fluctuating magnetic fields with magnitudes and fluctuation rates of the expected orders of magnitude that set in consistently at temperatures Tmag ≈ T*. The absence of any static field (to which µSR would be linearly sensitive) is consistent with the finite correlation length from neutron diffraction. Equally important, these fluctuations exhibit the critical slowing down at Tmag expected near a time-reversal symmetry breaking transition. Our results explain the absence of static magnetism and provide support for the existence of IUC magnetic order in the pseudogap phase.

Muon Spin Relaxation Evidence for the U(1) Quantum Spin-Liquid Ground State in the Triangular Antiferromagnet YbMgGaO_{4}.

Muon spin relaxation (µSR) experiments on single crystals of the structurally perfect triangular antiferromagnet YbMgGaO_{4} indicate the absence of both static long-range magnetic order and spin freezing down to 0.048 K in a zero field. Below 0.4 K, the µ^{+} spin relaxation rates, which are proportional to the dynamic correlation function of the Yb^{3+} spins, exhibit temperature-independent plateaus. All these µSR results unequivocally support the formation of a gapless U(1) quantum spin liquid ground state in the triangular antiferromagnet YbMgGaO_{4}.

Pressure-induced electronic phase separation of magnetism and superconductivity in CrAs.

The recent discovery of pressure (p) induced superconductivity in the binary helimagnet CrAs has raised questions on how superconductivity emerges from the magnetic state and on the mechanism of the superconducting pairing. In the present work the suppression of magnetism and the occurrence of superconductivity in CrAs were studied by means of muon spin rotation. The magnetism remains bulk up to p ≃ 3.5 kbar while its volume fraction gradually decreases with increasing pressure until it vanishes at p ≃ 7 kbar. At 3.5 kbar superconductivity abruptly appears with its maximum Tc ≃ 1.2 K which decreases upon increasing the pressure. In the intermediate pressure region (3.5 < or ~ p < or ~ 7 kbar) the superconducting and the magnetic volume fractions are spatially phase separated and compete for phase volume. Our results indicate that the less conductive magnetic phase provides additional carriers (doping) to the superconducting parts of the CrAs sample thus leading to an increase of the transition temperature (Tc) and of the superfluid density (ρs). A scaling of ρs with Tc(3.2) as well as the phase separation between magnetism and superconductivity point to a conventional mechanism of the Cooper-pairing in CrAs.