Muon spin rotation studies of magnetism in superconducting infinite layer nickelates

ORAL

Abstract

The recent discovery and ongoing expansion of a new family of superconductors, the hole-doped infinite layer rare earth nickelates (La,Pr,Nd)1-xSrxNiO2 1–4, has provoked much research activity with the goal of understanding their fundamental nature as well as their similarities to cuprates. One of the central questions has been their magnetic state with no long-range order observed in the bulk parent compounds 5 but magnetic excitations detected on the nickel sites 6.

 

Muon spin rotation offers a unique opportunity to probe intrinsic magnetism with extremely local sensitivity. With superconductivity so far only observed in thin film samples, low energy muons with a minimum implantation depth of just a few nanometers are utilized. Muon decay asymmetry spectra were recorded for various members of the superconducting infinite layer nickelate family. The effect of the rare earth ion and hole-doping through strontium substitution have been investigated.

*We acknowledge support from the Swiss National Science Foundation Postdoc.Mobility P400P2_199297, US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering, under contract number DE-AC02-76SF00515 and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation's Emergent Phenomena in Quantum Systems Initiative through grant number GBMF9072.

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Publication: 1. Li, D. et al. Superconductivity in an infinite-layer nickelate. Nature 572, 624–627 (2019).
2. Li, D. et al. Superconducting Dome in Nd1-xSrxNiO2 Infinite Layer Films. Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 027001 (2020).
3. Osada, M., Wang, B. Y., Lee, K., Li, D. & Hwang, H. Y. Phase diagram of infinite layer praseodymium nickelate Pr1-xSrxNiO2 thin films. Phys. Rev. Mater. 4, 1–5 (2020).
4. Osada, M. et al. Nickelate Superconductivity without Rare-Earth Magnetism: (La,Sr)NiO2. Adv. Mater. 2104083, 1–7 (2021).
5. Lin, H. et al. Universal spin-glass behaviour in bulk LaNiO2, PrNiO2 and NdNiO2. arXiv 2104.14324v1 (2021).
6. Lu, H. et al. Magnetic excitations in infinite-layer nickelates. Science 373, 213-216 (2021).

Presenters

  • Jennifer Fowlie

    • Stanford University

Authors

  • Jennifer Fowlie

    • Stanford University

  • Marios Hadjimichael

    • University of Geneva

  • Danfeng Li

    • Stanford Univ
    • City University of Hong Kong
    • Stanford University

  • Motoki Osada

    • Stanford Univ
    • Stanford University; SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
    • Stanford University

  • Bai Yang Wang

    • Stanford University
    • Stanford Univ
    • Stanford University; SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

  • Kyuho Lee

    • Stanford University
    • Stanford University; SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

  • Yonghun Lee

    • Stanford University

  • Thomas Prokscha

    • Paul Scherrer Institute
    • Paul Scherrer Institut

  • Zaher Salman

    • Paul Scherrer Institute
    • Paul Scherrer Institut

  • Jean-Marc Triscone

    • University of Geneva
    • Univ of Geneva

  • Andreas Suter

    • Paul Scherrer Institute
    • Paul Scherrer Institut

  • Harold Y Hwang

    • Stanford Univ
    • Stanford University; SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
    • Stanford University