Inhomogeneous Magnetic Phases:A Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov-Like Phase in Sr3Ru2O7

A. M. BERRIDGE; A. G. GREEN; S. A. GRIGERA; B. D. SIMONS

PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS

AMER PHYSICAL SOC

Año: 2009 vol. 102 p. 13640401 - 13640404

0031-9007

The phase diagram of Sr3Ru2O7 contains a metamagnetic transition that bifurcates to enclose an anomalous phase with intriguing properties—a large resistivity with anisotropy that breaks the crystallattice symmetry. We propose that this is a magnetic analogue of the spatially inhomogeneous superconducting Fulde-Ferrel-Larkin-Ovchinnikov state. We show—through a Ginzburg-Landau expansion where the magnetization transverse to the applied field can become spatially inhomogeneous—that a Stoner model with electronic band dispersion can reproduce this phase diagram and transport behavior.