Because it can be applied in-situ in a continuous fashion, and can be tailored to preserve or break selected spatial symmetries, piezoelectric devices-based strain has lately emerged as a versatile tuning parameter of quantum materials. In this talk we will focus on utilizing anisotropic strain as a probe of otherwise elusive multipolar orders in solids. Using the adiabatic AC elastocaloric effect, a compact, thermodynamic strain-based experimental technique [1,2], we study anisotropic strain effects on f electron-based multipolar orders [3,4]. We demonstrate the elastocaloric effect as an incisive probe to characterize the evolution of phase transitions with strain, and when combined with magnetic field, the elastocaloric effect can be employed to probe the otherwise elusive magnetic octupolar orders and associated fluctuations. We will discuss potential application of the technique to broader classes of quantum materials.
References
[1] Ikeda et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 90, 083902 (2019)
[2] Li et al., Nature, 607, 276 (2022)
[3] Ye et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 120 (35), e2302800120 (2023)
[4] Ye, Sorensen et al., arXiv/2309.04633