Magnetic fluctuations and specific heat in Na(x)CoO2 near a Lifshitz transition.
We analyze the temperature and doping dependence of the specific heat C(T) in Na(x)CoO(2). This material was conjectured to undergo a Lifshitz-type topological transition at x=x(c)=0.62, in which a new electron Fermi pocket emerges at the Γ point, in addition to the existing hole pocket with large k(F). The data show that near x=x(c), the temperature dependence of C(T)/T at low T gets stronger as x approaches x(c) from below and then reverses the trend and changes sign at x≥x(c). We argue that this behavior can be quantitatively explained within the spin-fluctuation theory. We show that magnetic fluctuations are enhanced near x(c) at momenta around k(F), and their dynamics changes between x≤x(c) and x>x(c), when the new pocket forms. We demonstrate that this explains the temperature dependence of C(T)/T. We show that at larger x (x>0.65) the system enters a magnetic quantum critical regime where C(T)/T roughly scales as logT. This behavior extends to progressively lower T as x increases towards a magnetic instability at x≈0.75.
Department of Physics, Loughborough University, Loughborough LE11 3TU, United Kingdom.
Sergey
S
Slizovskiy
Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA.
Andrey V
AV
Chubukov
Department of Physics, Loughborough University, Loughborough LE11 3TU, United Kingdom.
Joseph J
JJ
Betouras