2007/03/01 by Hyeonjin Doh, Hae‐Young Kee, Hae-Young Kee
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Condensed Matter Physics #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #cond-mat.str-el
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.75.233102
published as Phys. Rev. B 75, 233102 (2007) · 5 pages, 5 figures
arxiv created 2007/03/01 · openalex publication_date 2007/06/15 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
An electronic nematic state spontaneously breaks a point-group symmetry of an underlying lattice. As a result, the nematic-isotropic transition accompanies a Fermi surface distortion. However, the anisotropic nature of the nematic state at a macroscopic scale can be easily wiped out when domains of different orientations of nematic order exist. We suggest that a spatial pattern of local density of states (LDOS) in the presence of a nonmagnetic impurity can be a direct probe of the nematic order. We study various patterns of LDOS across the quantum phase transition between the isotropic and nematic phases. Specifically, the Fourier transformed local density of states, which can be deduced from scanning tunneling microscope images, represents a transparent symmetry of an electronic structure. The application of our results to the bilayer ruthenate, Sr3Ru2O7, is also discussed.