2025/08/18 by Zhang, Xu, Li, Chihao, Yang, Mingwei +8
#FOS: Physical sciences #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) #Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) #Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2508.12974
We investigate the Seebeck coefficient (S) in infinite-layer nickelate films with different disorder levels. The disordered NdNiO2 film exhibits a flat S/T curve, whereas cleaner samples display a logarithmic divergence with decreasing temperature, followed by a pronounced ``hump'' near 25 K. These distinct behaviors reveal a disorder-driven transition from band-structure-dominated transport to quantum-critical-dominated transport. Below the ``hump'' temperature, four-fold symmetry breaking is observed in the in-plane angular magnetoresistance, indicating the presence of short-range antiferromagnetic order in parent infinite-layer nickelate films. Furthermore, the logarithmic divergence in S/T is also observed in a clean superconducting Sm0.73Ca0.05Eu0.22NiO2 film, where it coexists with linear-in-temperature resistivity over the same temperature range. These findings demonstrate the existence of quantum criticality over a wide doping range in clean infinite-layer nickelate films, similar to cuprates, which highlights the central role of antiferromagnetic spin correlations in their superconducting pairing mechanisms.