New materials and phenomena arising from competing orders in strongly correlated electron systems

Abstract

Various orders complete and suppress one another in strongly correlated electron systems including high-temperature superconductors. As a result, these orders simultaneously grow without thermodynamic phase transitions, and form an inhomogeneous mixture in real space. This inhomogeneous state has been overlooked thus far, but has attracted a keen interest as a new resource of functional materials. It can be coupled with a specific external field to induce an anomalously large response.