Measurements of nematic susceptibility with phase sensitive nuclear magnetic resonance in pulsed strain fields

Abstract

We present nuclear magnetic resonance data in BaFe2As2 in the presence of pulsed strain fields that are interleaved in time with the radio frequency excitation pulses. In this approach, the preceding nuclear magnetization acquires a phase shift that is proportional to the strain and pulse time. The sensitivity of this approach is limited by the homogeneous decoherence time, T2, rather than the inhomogeneous linewidth. We measure the nematic susceptibility as a function of temperature and demonstrate a three orders of magnitude improvement in sensitivity. This approach will enable studies of the strain response in a broad range of materials that previously were inaccessible due to inhomogeneous broadening.