An Electronic Nematic Liquid in BaNi2As2

Understanding the organizing principles of interacting electrons and the emergence of novel electronic phases is a central endeavor of condensed matter physics. Electronic nematicity, in which the discrete rotational symmetry in the electron fluid is broken while the translational one remains unaffected, is a prominent example of such a phase. It has proven ubiquitous in correlated electron systems, and is of prime importance to understand Fe-based superconductors.
Here, we find that fluctuations of such broken symmetry are exceptionally strong over an extended temperature range above phase transitions in BaNi$_2$(As$_{1−x}$P$_x$)$_2$ , the nickel homologue to the Fe-based systems. This lends support to a type of electronic nematicity, dynamical in nature, which exhibits a particularly strong coupling to the underlying crystal lattice. Fluctuations between degenerate nematic configurations cause a splitting of phonon lines, without lifting degeneracies nor breaking symmetries, akin to spin liquids in magnetic systems