Rotational symmetry breaking in the hidden-order phase of URu2Si2.
Science
; 331(6016): 439-42, 2011 Jan 28.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-21273481
ABSTRACT
A second-order phase transition is characterized by spontaneous symmetry breaking. The nature of the broken symmetry in the so-called "hidden-order" phase transition in the heavy-fermion compound URu(2)Si(2), at transition temperature T(h) = 17.5 K, has posed a long-standing mystery. We report the emergence of an in-plane anisotropy of the magnetic susceptibility below T(h), which breaks the four-fold rotational symmetry of the tetragonal URu(2)Si(2). Two-fold oscillations in the magnetic torque under in-plane field rotation were sensitively detected in small pure crystals. Our findings suggest that the hidden-order phase is an electronic "nematic" phase, a translationally invariant metallic phase with spontaneous breaking of rotational symmetry.
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MEDLINE
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En
Ano de publicação:
2011
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Article