Magnetic, electrical transport, and thermoelectric properties ofSr4Ru3O10: Evidence for a field-induced electronic phase transition at low temperatures

Abstract

We report measurements on resistivity, thermopower, and magnetization as a function of temperature and magnetic field on single crystalline ${\mathrm{Sr}}_{4}{\mathrm{Ru}}_{3}{\mathrm{O}}_{10}$ grown by the floating-zone method. The in-plane and $c$-axis resistivities, magnetization, and the thermopower were found to exhibit a step feature at low temperatures (below roughly $30\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{K}$), accompanied by hysteresis behavior when the in-plane field was swept up and down from below $10\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{kOe}$ to above $20\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{kOe}$. In particular, the sharp increase in the thermopower with increasing in-plane magnetic field at low temperatures has not been observed previously in layered transition metal oxides. We propose that these observations can be explained by the existence of a transition between two electronic states in ${\mathrm{Sr}}_{4}{\mathrm{Ru}}_{3}{\mathrm{O}}_{10}$ in low and high in-plane magnetic fields, respectively, and the alignment of domains is responsible for the emergence of a different electronic state as the in-plane field is ramped up.