Unveiling quantum phase transitions with experiments under extreme conditions

 

When water boils into steam, physicists talk about a change from liquid to gas or a first-order phase transition, which is suppressed at a critical point, a concept ubiquitous to understand phase transitions driven by temperature. 

In this talk, I will present and discuss the outstanding case of the quantum phase transition (QPT, the phase transition that occurs at T = 0 K) recently discovered in an archetypal two-dimensional Shastry-Sutherland spin system, the frustrated antiferromagnet SrCu2(BO3)2. Challenging specific heat measurements under extreme conditions (very low temperatures, high-pressures and intensive magnetic fields) unveiled a first-order quantum phase transition in SrCu2(BO3)2 which terminates at the critical point analogue to the gas-liquid phase transition in water [1]. Although water and frustrated magnets share critical physics, first-order quantum phase transition in spin systems reveal extraordinary correlated quantum states, offering an alternative route for the realization of next generation of functional quantum materials with application in spintronic and quantum information. 

 

[1] J. Larrea Jiménez et al. Nature 592, 370 (2021).

J. A. L. J acknowledges the support of FAPESP Young Researcher Grant (2018/08845-3). J. A. L. J also acknowledges all co-authors in the recent scientific paper appeared in Nature DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03411-8

 

 

Prof. J. A. Larrea Jiménez obtained his bachelor degree (1998) in Universidad de San Marcos, his MSc (2000) and PhD (2003) in Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas (CBPF). He worked as postdoc (2004-2006) in CBPF, Scientific Collaborator (2007-2010) in the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Senior Postdoc (2010-2014) in the Technische Universität Wien and Visiting Researcher (2015-2017) in CBPF. Since 2018 he enrolled as Professor Doutor in the Instituto de Física da Universidade de São Paulo. His current research interest focuses on the development of experimental methods at the state-of-the-art working under simultaneous extreme conditions and the synthesis of functional materials with the aim to understand the underlying physics of quantum phase transitions and topological quantum matter emerging from strongly correlated electron systems.

Palavras-chaves: Quantum phase transitions, frustrated quantum magnetism, experiments under extreme conditions

 

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