Nanoscale decoupling of electronic nematicity and structural anisotropy in FeSe thin films
Abstract
In a material prone to a nematic instability, anisotropic strain in principle provides a preferred symmetry-breaking direction for the electronic nematic state to follow. This is consistent with experimental observations, where electronic nematicity and structural anisotropy typically appear hand-in-hand. In this work, we discover that electronic nematicity can be locally decoupled from the underlying structural anisotropy in strain-engineered iron-selenide (FeSe) thin films. We use heteroepitaxial molecular beam epitaxy to grow FeSe with a nanoscale network of modulations that give rise to spatially varying strain. We map local anisotropic strain by analyzing scanning tunneling microscopy topographs, and visualize electronic nematic domains from concomitant spectroscopic maps. While the domains form so that the energy of nemato-elastic coupling is minimized, we observe distinct regions where electronic nematic ordering fails to flip direction, even though the underlying structural anisotropy is locally reversed. The findings point towards a nanometer-scale stiffness of the nematic order parameter.
- Publication Date:
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF); Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1817065
- Grant/Contract Number:
- FG02-99ER45747; DMR-1654041; N66001-17-1-4051
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Nature Communications
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 12; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 2041-1723
- Publisher:
- Nature Publishing Group
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS; electronic properties and materials; surfaces, interfaces and thin films
Citation Formats
Ren, Zheng, Li, Hong, Zhao, He, Sharma, Shrinkhala, Wang, Ziqiang, and Zeljkovic, Ilija. Nanoscale decoupling of electronic nematicity and structural anisotropy in FeSe thin films. United States: N. p., 2021.
Web. doi:10.1038/s41467-020-20150-y.
Ren, Zheng, Li, Hong, Zhao, He, Sharma, Shrinkhala, Wang, Ziqiang, & Zeljkovic, Ilija. Nanoscale decoupling of electronic nematicity and structural anisotropy in FeSe thin films. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20150-y
Ren, Zheng, Li, Hong, Zhao, He, Sharma, Shrinkhala, Wang, Ziqiang, and Zeljkovic, Ilija. Mon .
"Nanoscale decoupling of electronic nematicity and structural anisotropy in FeSe thin films". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20150-y. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1817065.
@article{osti_1817065,
title = {Nanoscale decoupling of electronic nematicity and structural anisotropy in FeSe thin films},
author = {Ren, Zheng and Li, Hong and Zhao, He and Sharma, Shrinkhala and Wang, Ziqiang and Zeljkovic, Ilija},
abstractNote = {In a material prone to a nematic instability, anisotropic strain in principle provides a preferred symmetry-breaking direction for the electronic nematic state to follow. This is consistent with experimental observations, where electronic nematicity and structural anisotropy typically appear hand-in-hand. In this work, we discover that electronic nematicity can be locally decoupled from the underlying structural anisotropy in strain-engineered iron-selenide (FeSe) thin films. We use heteroepitaxial molecular beam epitaxy to grow FeSe with a nanoscale network of modulations that give rise to spatially varying strain. We map local anisotropic strain by analyzing scanning tunneling microscopy topographs, and visualize electronic nematic domains from concomitant spectroscopic maps. While the domains form so that the energy of nemato-elastic coupling is minimized, we observe distinct regions where electronic nematic ordering fails to flip direction, even though the underlying structural anisotropy is locally reversed. The findings point towards a nanometer-scale stiffness of the nematic order parameter.},
doi = {10.1038/s41467-020-20150-y},
journal = {Nature Communications},
number = 1,
volume = 12,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Jan 04 00:00:00 EST 2021},
month = {Mon Jan 04 00:00:00 EST 2021}
}
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