Magnetic, electrical transport, and thermoelectric properties of Sr4 Ru3 O10: Evidence for a field-induced electronic phase transition at low temperatures

We report measurements on resistivity, thermopower, and magnetization as a function of temperature and magnetic field on single crystalline Sr4 Ru3 O10 grown by the floating-zone method. The in-plane and c -axis resistivities, magnetization, and the thermopower were found to exhibit a step feature at low temperatures (below roughly 30 K), accompanied by hysteresis behavior when the in-plane field was swept up and down from below 10 kOe to above 20 kOe. In particular, the sharp increase in the thermopower with increasing in-plane magnetic field at low temperatures has not been observed previously in layered transition metal oxides. We propose that these observations can be explained by the existence of a transition between two electronic states in Sr4 Ru3 O10 in low and high in-plane magnetic fields, respectively, and the alignment of domains is responsible for the emergence of a different electronic state as the in-plane field is ramped up.