Elastocaloric signature of nematic fluctuations

TL;DR

This study uses elastocaloric effect measurements to detect nematic fluctuations in a Fe-based superconductor, revealing their doping-dependent behavior and impact on quasiparticle scattering.

Contribution

It demonstrates that elastocaloric measurements can sensitively probe nematic fluctuations and compares them directly with elastoresistivity, uncovering new doping-dependent behaviors.

Findings

Nematic fluctuations are detected via elastocaloric effect.

Doping affects the nemato-elastic coupling strength.

Quasiparticle scattering by nematic fluctuations increases with doping.

Abstract

The elastocaloric effect (ECE) is a thermodynamic quantity relating changes in entropy to changes in strain experienced by a material. As such, ECE measurements can provide valuable information about the entropy landscape proximate to strain-tuned phase transitions. For ordered states that break only point symmetries, bilinear coupling of the order parameter with strain implies that the ECE can also provide a window on fluctuations above the critical temperature, and hence, in principle, can also provide a thermodynamic measure of the associated susceptibility. To demonstrate this, we use the ECE to sensitively reveal the presence of nematic fluctuations in the archetypal Fe-based superconductor Ba(Fe$_{1-x}$Co$_{x}$)$_2$As$_2$. By performing these measurements simultaneously with elastoresistivity in a multimodal fashion, we are able to make a direct and unambiguous comparison of these closely related thermodynamic and transport properties, both of which are sensitive to nematic fluctuations. As a result, we have uncovered an unanticipated doping-dependence of the nemato-elastic coupling and of the magnitude of the scattering of low energy quasi-particles by nematic fluctuations -- while the former weakens, the latter increases dramatically with increasing doping.