Elastoresistivity of Three-state Nematicity in Fe_1/3NbS₂

When a material undergoes a transition into an electronic nematic phase, cells of the lattice distort along a certain axis, breaking rotational symmetry but preserving translational symmetry, and the Fermi surface of charge carrying electrons distorts in a manner which can be described by an order parameter. In materials with tetragonal crystalline symmetry, the order parameter describing this phase is a scalar, called ‘Ising nematicity’, but materials with triangular or hexagonal symmetry present more options for the direction of in-plane distortions, requiring a two component order parameter to fully describe the state. This type of nematicity is called Potts or three-state nematicity. In this talk, I will report the study of elastoresistivity of three-state nematicity in the hexagonal antiferromagnet Fe_1/3NbS₂. By subjecting single crystals to strain and measuring their elastoresistivity, we are able to observe the resistivity anisotropy induced at different lattice distortions under the phase transition temperature, giving us new insight into the unique characteristics of three-state nematic systems.