Pressure-tuned quantum phase transitions in elemental chromium /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:Palmer, Alexander, author.
Imprint:2015.
Ann Arbor : ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 2015
Description:1 electronic resource (87 pages)
Language:English
Format: E-Resource Dissertations
Local Note:School code: 0330
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/10773270
Hidden Bibliographic Details
Other authors / contributors:University of Chicago. degree granting institution.
ISBN:9781339080383
Notes:Advisors: Thomas F. Rosenbaum Committee members: Henry J. Frisch; Michael Levin; David I. Schuster.
Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 77-02(E), Section: B.
English
Summary:In this thesis, I begin by discussing new techniques for studying electrical and magnetic properties of materials at milliKelvin temperatures and GigaPascal pressures. These techniques should be widely applicable to the study of quantum phase transitions, which are often studied in such temperature and pressure regimes. I present two experimental studies of pressure-tuned quantum phase transitions in elemental chromium. The first study is of the first-order, quantum spin-flip transition in chromium. We are able to precisely measure the critical pressure of this transition, and we measure no Fermi surface reconstruction across the transition. We conclude that Fermi surface reconstruction does not necessarily accompany a first-order quantum phase transition. The second study is a search for superconductivity in chromium near the antiferromagnetic to paramagnetic quantum phase transition. We bound the existence of a superconducting phase to temperatures below 44 mK between 10.6 and 13.8 GPa.