| In this dissertation, light scattering techniques are used to probe the exotic orbital, magnetic, and conducting phases of the double layer ruthenate, Ca3Ru2O7, as functions of temperature, applied pressure, and applied magnetic field. These phases result from a rich interplay between the orbital, spin, and electronic degrees of freedom in such a strongly coupled system as Ca3Ru2O7. The Raman-active phonon and magnon excitations in Ca3Ru2O7 convey sufficient information to map out the orbital, magnetic, and conducting (H, T) and (P, T) phase diagrams of this material.;This study finds that quasihydrostatic pressure causes a linear suppression of the orbital-ordering temperature (TOO = 48 K at P = 0), up to a T = 0 critical point near P* ∼ 55 kbar, above which the material is in a metallic, orbital-degenerate phase. This pressure-induced collapse of the antiferromagnetic orbital-ordered phase is associated with a suppression of the RuO6 octahedral distortions that are responsible for orbital-ordering.;It is also shown that an applied magnetic field at low temperatures induces a change from an orbital-ordered to an orbital-degenerate phase for fields aligned along the in-plane hard-axis, but induces a reentrant orbital-ordered to orbital-disordered to orbital-ordered phase change for fields aligned along the in-plane easy-axis. This complex magnetic field dependence betrays the importance of the spin-orbit coupling in this system, which makes the field-induced phase behavior highly sensitive to both the applied magnetic field magnitude and direction. It is further shown that rapid field-induced changes in the structure and orbital populations are responsible for the highly field-tunable conducting properties of Ca3Ru2O7, and that the most dramatic magneto-conductivities are associated with an "orbital disordered" phase regime in which there is a random mixture of a- and b-axis oriented Ru moments and d-orbital populations on the Ru ions.;Dilute La doping in Ca3Ru2O7 changes the lattice parameter along the c-axis and also adds an extra electron, providing bandwidth and band filling control, respectively. This addition of La also lowers the orbital ordering temperature to T ∼ 43 K, and provides a greater sensitivity of the orbital phases to applied magnetic fields, as evidenced by changes in the phases occurring at lower fields and over a greater field range than seen in the undoped system. |
