Observation of an antiferromagnetic quantum critical point in high-purity LaNiO3

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 11; no. 1; p. 1402
• Main Authors: Liu, Changjiang, Humbert, Vincent F. C., Bretz-Sullivan, Terence M., Wang, Gensheng, Hong, Deshun, Wrobel, Friederike, Zhang, Jianjie, Hoffman, Jason D., Pearson, John E., Jiang, J. Samuel, Chang, Clarence, Suslov, Alexey, Mason, Nadya, Norman, M. R., Bhattacharya, Anand
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 16.03.2020; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 639/766/119/2795; 639/766/119/544; 639/766/119/995; Antiferromagnetism; Critical point; Current carriers; electronic properties and materials; Fermions; Fluctuations; Humanities and Social Sciences; Impurities; Lanthanum oxides; Low temperature; Magnetic fields; Magnetic properties; Magnetism; MATERIALS SCIENCE; multidisciplinary; Perovskites; phase transitions and critical phenomena; Physics; PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS; Purity; Rare earth elements; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); surfaces, interfaces and thin films; Thin films; Transport properties
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-15143-w

Amongst the rare-earth perovskite nickelates, LaNiO 3 (LNO) is an exception. While the former have insulating and antiferromagnetic ground states, LNO remains metallic and non-magnetic down to the lowest temperatures. It is believed that LNO is a strange metal, on the verge of an antiferromagnetic instability. Our work suggests that LNO is a quantum critical metal, close to an antiferromagnetic quantum critical point (QCP). The QCP behavior in LNO is manifested in epitaxial thin films with unprecedented high purities. We find that the temperature and magnetic field dependences of the resistivity of LNO at low temperatures are consistent with scatterings of charge carriers from weak disorder and quantum fluctuations of an antiferromagnetic nature. Furthermore, we find that the introduction of a small concentration of magnetic impurities qualitatively changes the magnetotransport properties of LNO, resembling that found in some heavy-fermion Kondo lattice systems in the vicinity of an antiferromagnetic QCP. LaNiO 3 is a strange metal, for reasons that are not well understood. Here, Liu et al. report evidence for scattering of charge carriers by antiferromagnetic quantum fluctuations in high-purity epitaxial thin films of LaNiO 3 , suggesting it is close to an antiferromagnetic quantum critical point.