TY - JOUR
T1 - Z 3-vestigial nematic order due to superconducting fluctuations in the doped topological insulators NbxBi2Se3 and CuxBi2Se3
AU - Cho, Chang woo
AU - Shen, Junying
AU - Lyu, Jian
AU - Atanov, Omargeldi
AU - Chen, Qianxue
AU - Lee, Seng Huat
AU - Hor, Yew San
AU - Gawryluk, Dariusz Jakub
AU - Pomjakushina, Ekaterina
AU - Bartkowiak, Marek
AU - Hecker, Matthias
AU - Schmalian, Jörg
AU - Lortz, Rolf
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank U. Lampe for the technical support and acknowledge enlightening discussions with I. R. Fischer, C. Meingast, K. T. Law, and K. Willa. This work was supported by grants from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (GRF-16302018, SBI17SC14, IEG16SC03). J.S. was supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s EPiQS Initiative through Grant GBMF4302 and GBMF8686 while visiting the Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials at Stanford University. J.S. also acknowledges support by the German Research Foundation (DFG) through the Collaborative Research Center CRC TRR 288 “Elastic Tuning and Response of Electronic Quantum Phases of Matter”, project B01. Y.S.H. acknowledges the support from the NSF-DMR 1255607.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The Author(s).
PY - 2020/12/1
Y1 - 2020/12/1
N2 - A state of matter with a multi-component order parameter can give rise to vestigial order. In the vestigial phase, the primary order is only partially melted, leaving a remaining symmetry breaking behind, an effect driven by strong classical or quantum fluctuations. Vestigial states due to primary spin and charge-density-wave order have been discussed in iron-based and cuprate materials. Here we present the observation of a partially melted superconductivity in which pairing fluctuations condense at a separate phase transition and form a nematic state with broken Z3, i.e., three-state Potts-model symmetry. Thermal expansion, specific heat and magnetization measurements of the doped topological insulators NbxBi2Se3 and CuxBi2Se3 reveal that this symmetry breaking occurs at Tnem≃3.8K above Tc≃3.25K, along with an onset of superconducting fluctuations. Thus, before Cooper pairs establish long-range coherence at Tc, they fluctuate in a way that breaks the rotational invariance at Tnem and induces a crystalline distortion.
AB - A state of matter with a multi-component order parameter can give rise to vestigial order. In the vestigial phase, the primary order is only partially melted, leaving a remaining symmetry breaking behind, an effect driven by strong classical or quantum fluctuations. Vestigial states due to primary spin and charge-density-wave order have been discussed in iron-based and cuprate materials. Here we present the observation of a partially melted superconductivity in which pairing fluctuations condense at a separate phase transition and form a nematic state with broken Z3, i.e., three-state Potts-model symmetry. Thermal expansion, specific heat and magnetization measurements of the doped topological insulators NbxBi2Se3 and CuxBi2Se3 reveal that this symmetry breaking occurs at Tnem≃3.8K above Tc≃3.25K, along with an onset of superconducting fluctuations. Thus, before Cooper pairs establish long-range coherence at Tc, they fluctuate in a way that breaks the rotational invariance at Tnem and induces a crystalline distortion.
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U2 - 10.1038/s41467-020-16871-9
DO - 10.1038/s41467-020-16871-9
M3 - Article
C2 - 32546839
AN - SCOPUS:85086586518
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 11
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
IS - 1
M1 - 3056
ER -