Normal state ¹⁷O NMR studies of Sr₂RuO₄ under uniaxial stress

The effects of uniaxial compressive stress on the normal state ¹⁷O nuclear-magnetic-resonance properties of the unconventional superconductor Sr₂RuO₄ are reported. The paramagnetic shifts of both planar and apical oxygen sites show pronounced anomalies near the nominal a-axis strain ϵaa≡ϵv that maximizes the superconducting transition temperature Tc. The spin susceptibility weakly increases on lowering the temperature below T≃10  K, consistent with an enhanced density of states associated with passing the Fermi energy through a van Hove singularity. Although such a Lifshitz transition occurs in the γ band formed by the Ru d_xy states hybridized with in-plane O pπ orbitals, the large Hund’s coupling renormalizes the uniform spin susceptibility, which, in turn, affects the hyperfine fields of all nuclei. We estimate this “Stoner” renormalization S by combining the data with first-principles calculations and conclude that this is an important part of the strain effect, with implications for superconductivity.