To flesh out the phase diagrams of electronic and spin systems, researchers must examine these systems in extreme conditions. Breslavetz et al. designed an optical spectroscopy experimental setup that simultaneously offers three extremes: low temperature, a strong magnetic field, and high pressure.
The authors achieved a low temperature of 4.2 K, a magnetic field as high as 31 T using resistive magnets, and a high pressure up to 10 GPa using a diamond anvil cell. The setup offers these extreme conditions while maintaining micrometer scale spatial resolution for optical spectroscopy, which could be used to study exotic phases of nanostructures.
“This provides a tool to investigate the electronic and magnetic properties of solids in very original conditions, which are necessary for the appearance of certain classes of exotic electronic phases,” said author Clement Faugeras. “Optical spectroscopy can bring a special look and provide unique information about such electronic phases.”
They applied this tool to layered iron phosphorus trisulfide. The results suggest this setup permits independent tuning of three thermodynamic parameters, which can be used to investigate phase diagrams for different systems and probe their properties with optical spectroscopy.
High pressure can also be used to tune interlayer spacing (and properties that depend on interlayer interaction, including proximity effects and magnetic properties) of two-dimensional materials, such as van der Waals heterostructures. Next, the authors plan to use this experimental setup to characterize proximity effects in van der Waals heterostructures.
Source: “Spatially resolved optical spectroscopy in extreme environment of low temperature, high magnetic fields and high pressure,” by I. Breslavetz, A. Delhomme, T. Pelini, A. Pawbake, D. Vaclavkova, M. Orlita, M. Potemski, M.-A. Measson, and C. Faugeras, Review of Scientific Instruments (2021). The article can be accessed at https://aip.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1063/5.0070934.
