2016/04/30 by T. Ishii, Tomohiro Ishii, Rei Toda +15
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Antiferromagnetism #Condensed matter physics #Electrical resistivity and conductivity #Iron-based superconductors research #Ising model #Kondo effect #Kondo insulator #Phase transition #Physics #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Quantum #Quantum critical point #Quantum mechanics #Quantum phase transition #Quasiparticle #Rare-earth and actinide compounds #Superconductivity #Superlattice #cond-mat.str-el
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.116.206401
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 206401 (2016) · Main text: 5 pages, 4 figures; Supplemental material:6 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters
arxiv created 2016/04/30 · openalex publication_date 2016/05/20 · arxiv updated 2016/05/25 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The effects of reduced dimensions and the interfaces on antiferromagnetic quantum criticality are studied in epitaxial Kondo superlattices, with alternating n layers of heavy-fermion antiferromagnet CeRhIn5 and seven layers of normal metal YbRhIn5. As n is reduced, the Kondo coherence temperature is suppressed due to the reduction of effective Kondo screening. The Néel temperature is gradually suppressed as n decreases and the quasiparticle mass is strongly enhanced, implying dimensional control toward a quantum critical point. Magnetotransport measurements reveal that a quantum critical point is reached for the n=3 superlattice by applying small magnetic fields. Remarkably, the anisotropy of the quantum critical field is opposite to the expectations from the magnetic susceptibility in bulk CeRhIn5, suggesting that the Rashba spin-orbit interaction arising from the inversion symmetry breaking at the interface plays a key role for tuning the quantum criticality in the two-dimensional Kondo lattice.