Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Winter, Laurel E..
High magnetic fields are a fundamental thermodynamic probe of quantum matter. Magnetic fields couple to both electons' spin and charge degrees of freedom. They can be used to manipulate the phase of the electron wavefunction and importantly provide a measure of coherence through orbital quantization. They can both probe and influence the state of a material.
While crystals of strongly correlated metals exhibit a diverse set of electronic ground states, few approaches exist for spatially modulating their properties. In this study, we demonstrate disorder-free control, on the micrometer scale, over the superconducting state in samples of the heavy-fermion superconductor CeIrIn 5 . We pattern crystals by focused ion beam milling to tailor the boundary conditions for the elastic deformation upon thermal contraction during cooling. The resulting nonuniform strain fields induce complex patterns of superconductivity, owing to the strong dependence of the transition temperature on the strength and direction of strain. These findings showcase a generic approach to manipulating electronic order on micrometer length scales in strongly correlated matter without compromising the cleanliness, stoichiometry, or mean free path.
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Metals containing cerium exhibit a diverse range of fascinating phenomena including heavy fermion behavior, quantum criticality, and novel states of matter such as unconventional superconductivity. The cubic system CeIn3 has attracted significant attention as a structurally isotropic Kondo lattice material possessing the minimum required complexity to still reveal this rich physics. By using magnetic fields with strengths comparable to the crystal field energy scale, we illustrate a strong field-induced anisotropy as a consequence of non-spherically symmetric spin interactions in the prototypical heavy fermion material CeIn3. We demonstrate the importance of magnetic anisotropy in modeling f-electron materials when the orbital character of the 4f wavefunction changes (e.g., with pressure or composition). Additionally, magnetic fields are shown to tune the effective hybridization and exchange interactions potentially leading to new exotic field tuned effects in f-based materials.
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