Elastoresistance as probe of strain-controlled entropy from Kondo scattering

Abstract

Heavy-fermion metals are prototype correlated electron systems for the study of Kondo entanglement and quantum criticality. We use the symmetry decomposed elastoresistance to uncover the fingerprints of strain-dependent Kondo scattering as function of temperature and magnetic field in the prototypical tetragonal Kondo lattice YbRh$_2$Si$_2$. By combining longitudinal and transverse resistance measurements under uniaxial strain applied along the tetragonal $[100]$ and $[110]$ directions, we obtain the elastoresistive responses in the $A_{1g}$, $B_{1g}$, and $B_{2g}$ symmetry channels. While the responses in the symmetry-breaking channels are negligible, the isotropic $A_{1g}$ elastoresistance displays characteristic sign changes and approaches huge values at low temperatures. Scaling analysis and comparison with linear thermal expansion measurements reveals that the elastoresistance probes the contribution of Kondo scattering to the strain dependence of magnetic entropy and signals strain-controlled quantum criticality upon cooling to 2 K.