Recent Research

Discovery of a disorder-driven electronic smectic phase in weakly correlated Dirac nodal line semimetal GdSbTe

Electrons in solids can organize into unusual patterns, similar to liquid crystals, by breaking the crystalline symmetry of the host material. These so-called electronic liquid crystal phases usually appear in strongly correlated electron systems, such as high Tc cuprate superconductors.
Surprisingly, we have discovered such an electronic smectic phase in weakly correlated Dirac nodal line semimetal GdSbTe, using scanning tunneling microscopy. We demonstrate that chemical substitutions play a key role in creating these symmetry-breaking quantum phases.
Our findings advance the microscopic understanding of electronic liquid crystal phases in quantum materials and present a novel platform for exploring the interplay among quenched disorder, Dirac fermions and electron correlation.
This research was carried out by an international team, including Dr. Tien-Ming Chuang (IOP), Dr. Hsin Lin (IOP), Dr. Raman Sankar (IOP), Prof. Tay-Rong Chang (NCKU), Prof. Adrian Del Maestro (U Tennessee), Prof. Ming-Wen Chu (NTU), and Dr. Ying-Jer Kao (NTU). The work at the IOP was supported by Innovative Materials and Analytical Technology Exploration (iMATE) Program and the National Science and Technology Council. The paper is published in npj Quantum Materials 10, 56 (2025).

Journal Links: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41535-025-00779-y