Existence of two electronic states in Sr4Ru3O10 at low temperatures

TL;DR

This study reveals a magnetic field-induced transition between two electronic states in Sr4Ru3O10 at low temperatures, characterized by resistivity, thermopower, and magnetization measurements showing hysteresis and step features.

Contribution

It provides evidence for two distinct electronic states in Sr4Ru3O10 and links their transition to magnetic domain alignment under in-plane magnetic fields.

Findings

Step feature in resistivity and thermopower at low temperatures

Hysteresis observed during magnetic field sweeps

Transition between two electronic states linked to domain alignment

Abstract

We report measurements on in-plane resistivity, thermopower, and magnetization as a function of temperature and magnetic fields on single crystalline Sr4Ru3O10 grown by the floating zone method. As the temperature was lowered to below around 30 K, the in-plane and c-axis resistivities and the thermopower were found to exhibit a step feature accompanied by hysteresis behavior when the in-plane field was swept up and down from below 10 kOe to above 20 kOe. The sharp increase in the thermopower with increasing in-plane magnetic field at low temperatures has not been observed previously in layered transition metal oxides. Comparing with magnetization data, we propose that the step feature marks the transition between the two different electronic states in Sr4Ru3O10. We propose that the alignment of domains by the in-plane magnetic field is responsible to the emergence of the new electronic states in high applied in-plane magnetic field.