2009/10/31 by Eduardo Fradkin, Steven A. Kivelson, Michael J. Lawler +2 · 6 citations
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Iron-based superconductors research #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #cond-mat.str-el #cond-mat.supr-con
paper · pdf · doi:10.1146/annurev-conmatphys-070909-103925
published as Annual Reviews of Condensed Matter Physics \textbf{1}, 153 (2010) · 30 pages, 7 figures (some in color); to appear in Annual Reviews of Condensed Matter Physics. Edited version.
arxiv created 2010/03/27 · openalex publication_date 2010/07/29 · arxiv updated 2015/03/13 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Correlated electron fluids can exhibit a startling array of complex phases, among which one of the more surprising is the electron nematic, a translationally invariant metallic phase with a spontaneously generated spatial anisotropy. Classical nematics generally occur in liquids of rod-like molecules; given that electrons are point like, the initial theoretical motivation for contemplating electron nematics came from thinking of the electron fluid as a quantum melted electron crystal, rather than a strongly interacting descendent of a Fermi gas. Dramatic transport experiments in ultra-clean quantum Hall systems in 1999 and in Sr 3 Ru 2 O 7 in a strong magnetic field in 2007 established that such phases exist in nature. In this article, we briefly review the theoretical considerations governing nematic order, summarize the quantum Hall and Sr 3 Ru 2 O 7 experiments that unambiguously establish the existence of this phase, and survey some of the current evidence for such a phase in the cuprate and Fe-based high temperature superconductors.