Rotational Symmetry Breaking in the Hidden-Order Phase of URu2Si2

被引：221

作者：

Okazaki, R. ^{[1
]}

Shibauchi, T. ^{[1
]}

Shi, H. J. ^{[1
]}

Haga, Y. ^{[2
]}

Matsuda, T. D. ^{[2
]}

Yamamoto, E. ^{[2
]}

Onuki, Y. ^{[2
,3
]}

Ikeda, H. ^{[1
]}

Matsuda, Y. ^{[1
]}

机构：

[1] Kyoto Univ, Dept Phys, Kyoto 6068502, Japan

[2] Japan Atom Energy Agcy, Adv Sci Res Ctr, Tokai, Ibaraki 3191195, Japan

[3] Osaka Univ, Grad Sch Sci, Osaka 5600043, Japan

来源：

SCIENCE | 2011年 / 331卷 / 6016期

基金：

日本学术振兴会;

关键词：

ELECTRON SUPERCONDUCTOR URU2SI2; FERMION SYSTEM URU2SI2; EXCITATIONS; SURFACE;

D O I：

10.1126/science.1197358

中图分类号：

O [数理科学和化学]; P [天文学、地球科学]; Q [生物科学]; N [自然科学总论];

学科分类号：

07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;

摘要：

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 URu2Si2, 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 URu2Si2. 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.

引用

页码：439 / 442

页数：4

共 29 条

[1] Pressure-temperature phase diagram of the heavy-electron superconductor URu2Si2 [J].