Magnetic-Field Tunable Intertwined Checkerboard Charge Order and Nematicity in the Surface Layer of Sr${}_2$RuO${}_4$

Abstract

In strongly correlated electron materials, the electronic, spin, and charge degrees of freedom are closely intertwined. This often leads to the stabilization of emergent orders that are highly sensitive to external physical stimuli promising opportunities for technological applications. In perovskite ruthenates, this sensitivity manifests in dramatic changes of the physical properties with subtle structural details of the RuO${}_6$ octahedra, stabilizing enigmatic correlated ground states, from a hotly debated superconducting state via electronic nematicity and metamagnetic quantum criticality to ferromagnetism. Here, it is demonstrated that the rotation of the RuO${}_6$ octahedra in the surface layer of Sr${}_2$RuO${}_4$ generates new emergent orders not observed in the bulk material. Through atomic-scale spectroscopic characterization of the low-energy electronic states, four van Hove singularities are identified in the vicinity of the Fermi energy. The singularities can be directly linked to intertwined nematic and checkerboard charge order. Tuning of one of these van Hove singularities by magnetic field is demonstrated, suggesting that the surface layer undergoes a Lifshitz transition at a magnetic field of ~32T. The results establish the surface layer of Sr${}_2$RuO${}_4$ as an exciting 2D correlated electron system and highlight the opportunities for engineering the low-energy electronic states in these systems.

26 pages including supplementary material, replaced with published version

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Cited by in corpus (21)

• Structural routes to stabilise superconducting La${}_3$Ni${}_2$O${}_7$ at ambient pressure
• Quasiparticle Interference of the van-Hove singularity in Sr${}_2$RuO${}_4$
• High-order Van Hove singularities and their connection to flat bands
• The discovery of three-dimensional Van Hove singularity
• Magnetic-Field Tunable Intertwined Checkerboard Charge Order and Nematicity in the Surface Layer of Sr${}_2$RuO${}_4$
• Compass-like manipulation of electronic nematicity in Sr${}_3$Ru${}_2$O${}_7$
• On the engineering of higher-order Van Hove singularities in two dimensions
• Signatures of a surface spin-orbital chiral metal
• Hierarchy of Lifshitz transitions in the surface electronic structure of Sr${}_2$RuO${}_4$ under uniaxial compression
• Spin-orbit coupling induced Van Hove singularity in proximity to a Lifshitz transition in Sr${}_4$Ru${}_3$O${}_{10}$
• Conditions for orbital selective altermagnetism in Sr${}_2$RuO${}_4$: tight binding model, similarities with cuprates and implications on superconductivity
• Atomic-scale imaging of emergent order at a magnetic-field-induced Lifshitz transition
• Persistent half-metallic ferromagnetism in a (111)-oriented manganite superlattice
• calcQPI: A versatile tool to simulate quasiparticle interference
• Magic angle of Sr${}_2$RuO${}_4$: Optimizing correlation-driven superconductivity
• Surface State of Inter-orbital Pairing State in Sr${}_2$RuO${}_4$ Superconductor
• Evolution of Interorbital Superconductor to Intraorbital Spin-Density Wave in Layered Ruthenates
• Electronic nematic order in the normal state of strontium ruthenate
• Anomalous Fermi pockets on Hund's metal surface of Sr2RuO4 induced by the correlation-enhanced spin-orbit coupling
• Why Scanning Tunneling Microscopy on Sr${}_2$RuO${}_4$ sometimes doesn't see the superconducting gap
• Spin Fluctuations in Sr${}_{1.8}$La${}_{0.2}$RuO${}_4$