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  • Rotational Symmetry Breakin...
    OKAZAKI, R; SHIBAUCHI, T; SHI, H. J; HAGA, Y; MATSUDA, T. D; YAMAMOTO, E; ONUKI, Y; IKEDA, H; MATSUDA, Y

    Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science), 01/2011, Letnik: 331, Številka: 6016
    Journal Article

    A second-order phase transition is characterized by spontaneous symmetry breaking. The nature of the broken symmetry in the so-called "hidden-order" phase transition in the heavy-fermion compound URu(2)Si(2), at transition temperature T(h) = 17.5 K, has posed a long-standing mystery. We report the emergence of an in-plane anisotropy of the magnetic susceptibility below T(h), which breaks the four-fold rotational symmetry of the tetragonal URu(2)Si(2). Two-fold oscillations in the magnetic torque under in-plane field rotation were sensitively detected in small pure crystals. Our findings suggest that the hidden-order phase is an electronic "nematic" phase, a translationally invariant metallic phase with spontaneous breaking of rotational symmetry.