Kamran Behnia

On the thermoelectricity of correlated electrons in the zero-temperature limit

The Seebeck coefficient of a metal is expected to display a linear temperature dependence in the zero-temperature limit. To attain this regime, it is often necessary to cool the system well below 1 K. We put under scrutiny the magnitude of this term in different families of strongly interacting electronic systems. For a wide range of compounds (including heavy-fermion, organic and various oxide families) a remarkable correlation between this term and the electronic specific heat is found. We argue that a dimensionless ratio relating these two signatures of mass renormalization contains interesting information about the ground state of each system. The absolute value of this ratio remains close to unity in a wide range of strongly correlated electron systems.

Field-induced polarization of Dirac valleys in bismuth

Multiple valleys in the electronic structure of certain crystal lattices could enable the development of so-called valleytronic devices. But to do so, the degeneracy of these valleys must be lifted. Measurements of the anisotropic magnetoelectric response of bismuth suggest that its three-fold valley degeneracy breaks spontaneously at low temperatures and high fields.

Exotic superconducting properties in the electron-hole-compensated heavy-fermion "Semimetal" URu2Si2.

We show that the charge and thermal transport measurements on ultraclean crystals of URu2Si2 reveal a number of unprecedented superconducting properties. The uniqueness is best highlighted by the peculiar field dependence of thermal conductivity including the first-order transition at Hc2 with a reduction of entropy flow. This is a consequence of multiband superconductivity with compensated electronic structure in the hidden order state of this system. We provide strong evidence for a new type of unconventional superconductivity with two distinct gaps having different nodal topology.

Signatures of Electron Fractionalization in Ultraquantum Bismuth

Because of the long Fermi wavelength of itinerant electrons, the quantum limit of elemental bismuth (unlike most metals) can be attained with a moderate magnetic field. The quantized orbits of electrons shrink with increasing magnetic field. Beyond the quantum limit, the circumference of these orbits becomes shorter than the Fermi wavelength. We studied transport coefficients of a single crystal of bismuth up to 33 tesla, which is deep in this ultraquantum limit. The Nernst coefficient presents three unexpected maxima that are concomitant with quasi-plateaus in the Hall coefficient. The results suggest that this bulk element may host an exotic quantum fluid reminiscent of the one associated with the fractional quantum Hall effect and raise the issue of electron fractionalization in a three-dimensional metal.

The Nernst effect and the boundaries of the Fermi liquid picture

Following the observation of an anomalous Nernst signal in cuprates, the Nernst effect has been explored in a variety of metals and superconductors during the past few years. This paper reviews the results obtained during this exploration, focusing on the Nernst response of normal quasi-particles as opposed to the one generated by superconducting vortices or by short-lived Cooper pairs. Contrary to what has been often assumed, the so-called Sondheimer cancelation does not imply a negligible Nernst response in a Fermi liquid. In fact, the amplitude of the Nernst response measured in various metals in the low-temperature limit is scattered over six orders of magnitude. According to the data, this amplitude is roughly set by the ratio of electron mobility to Fermi energy, in agreement with the implications of semi-classical transport theory.

Electronic ground state of heavily overdoped nonsuperconducting La2-xSrxCuO4

We report detailed thermodynamic and transport measurements for nonsuperconducting

Universal Heat Conduction in YBa{sub 2}Cu{sub 3}O{sub 6.9}

{\mathrm{La}}_{1.7}{\mathrm{Sr}}_{0.3}{\mathrm{CuO}}_{4}.

Nernst and Seebeck Coefficients of the Cuprate Superconductor YBa2Cu3O6.67: A Study of Fermi Surface Reconstruction

Collectively, these data support the presence of a highly correlated Fermi-liquid ground state in

HEAT CONDUCTION IN KAPPA -(BEDT-TTF)2CU(NCS)2

{\mathrm{La}}_{2\ensuremath{-}x}{\mathrm{Sr}}_{x}{\mathrm{CuO}}_{4}

Fermi Surface of the Most Dilute Superconductor

beyond the superconducting dome, and imply that charge transport in the cuprates is dominated at finite temperatures by electron-electron scattering.