High-pressure specific heat technique to uncover novel states of quantum matter

AC-specific heat measurements remain as the foremost thermodynamic experimental method to underpin phase transitions in tiny samples. However, its performance under combined extreme conditions of high-pressure, very low temperature and intense magnetic fields needs to be broadly extended for investigation of quantum phase transition in strongly correlated electron systems. In this communication, we discuss the determination of specific heat on the quantum paramagnetic$-$insulator SrCu$_{2}$(BO$_{3}$)$_{2}$ by applying the AC-specific heat technique under extreme conditions. In order to apply this technique to insulating samples we sputtered a metallic thin film-heater and attached thermometer onto sample. Besides that, we performed full frequency scans with the aim to get quantitative specific heat data. Our results show that we can determine the sample heat capacity within 5$\%$ of accuracy respect to an adiabatic technique. This allows to uncover low energy scales that characterize the ground state of quantum spin entanglement in SrCu$_{2}$(BO$_{3}$)$_{2}$.
Comment: To be published in Journal of Physics: Conference Series