Electronic Nematicity Revealed by Polarized Ultrafast Spectroscopy in Bilayer La${}_3$Ni${}_2$O${}_7$

Abstract

We report a polarized ultrafast pump-probe study of the normal-state electronic dynamics in bilayer La${}_3$Ni${}_2$O${}_7$ and trilayer La${}_4$Ni${}_3$O${}_{10}$ single crystals at ambient pressure. While both nickelates exhibit density-wave (DW) transitions accompanied by the opening of a quasiparticle relaxation bottleneck, their electronic responses display strikingly different symmetry properties. La4Ni3O10 maintains an isotropic optical response across the entire temperature range. In contrast, La${}_3$Ni${}_2$O${}_7$ exhibits a pronounced twofold ($C_2$) anisotropy in its lowtemperature electronic dynamics. This electronic nematicity, evident in both the relaxation dynamics and the polarization-dependent effective bottleneck energy scales, is strongly modified below 115 K, suggesting coupling or competition with a secondary DW-like instability reported by complementary probes. The presence of macroscopic electronic anisotropy in the bilayer system, and its absence in the trilayer system, suggests a possible relation between electronic nematic correlations and the superconducting normal state in a${}_3$Ni${}_2$O${}_7$ that deserves further exploration.

6 pages, 3 figures