Hall coefficient anomaly in the low-temperature high-field phase of Sr₃Ru₂O₇

We report a study of the Hall effect of high-purity Sr₃Ru₂O₇ single crystals. We establish an empirical correlation between the onset of its unusual low-temperature, high-field phase and a pronounced dip in the field-dependent Hall coefficient. Unlike the order parameter obtained from measurements of anisotropic resistivity, which is affected by the formation of domains, the Hall effect feature seems to reflect the nature of the ordering within a single domain. We checked for violations of the Onsager relations for the off-diagonal components of the resistivity tensor but do not detect any. We compare our observations to those on materials that have long-wavelength spin structures, and discuss them in relation to a growing body of theoretical work on the nature of the low-temperature phase in Sr₃Ru₂O₇.