Hysteresis and Noise from Electronic Nematicity in High Temperature Superconductors

TL;DR

This paper models electron nematicity in high-temperature superconductors as a random field Ising system, predicting new experimental tests via noise and hysteresis measurements, and finds a strong correlation between order and resistance anisotropy.

Contribution

It introduces a resistor network model linking electron nematicity to RFIM, proposing novel noise and hysteresis tests for detecting nematic order.

Findings

Linear relation between orientational order and resistance anisotropy.

Robustness of the relation across various conditions.

Predictions for experimental detection of electron nematicity.

Abstract

An electron nematic is a translationally invariant state which spontaneously breaks the discrete rotational symmetry of a host crystal. In a clean square lattice, the electron nematic has two preferred orientations, while dopant disorder favors one or the other orientations locally. In this way, the electron nematic in a host crystal maps to the random field Ising model (RFIM). Since the electron nematic has anisotropic conductivity, we associate each Ising configuration with a resistor network, and use what is known about the RFIM to predict new ways to test for electron nematicity using noise and hysteresis. In particular, we have uncovered a remarkably robust linear relation between the orientational order and the resistance anisotropy which holds over a wide range of circumstances.