Ferromagnetism stabilized by lattice distortion at the surface of the p-wave superconductor Sr(2)RuO(4)
Ferromagnetic (FM) spin fluctuations are believed to mediate the spin-triplet pairing for the p-wave superconductivity in Sr(2)RuO(4). Our experiments show that, at the surface, a bulk soft-phonon mode freezes into a static lattice distortion associated with an in-plane rotation of the RuO(6) octahedron. First-principle calculations confirm this structure and predict a FM ground state at the surface. This coupling between structure and magnetism in the environment of broken symmetry at the surface allows a reconsideration of the coupling mechanism in the bulk.
Matzdorf
R
Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996-1200, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6057, USA. Department of Physics, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199, USA.
Fang
Z
Ismail
Zhang
J
Kimura
T
Tokura
Y
Terakura
K
Plummer
EW