English

Comparison of two superconducting phases induced by a magnetic field in UTe2

Superconductivity 2021-03-09 v1 Strongly Correlated Electrons

Abstract

Superconductivity induced by a magnetic field near metamagnetism is a striking manifestation of magnetically-mediated superconducting pairing. After being observed in itinerant ferromagnets, this phenomenon was recently reported in the orthorhombic paramagnet UTe2_2. Under a magnetic field applied along the hard magnetization axis b, superconductivity is reinforced on approaching metamagnetism at μ0Hm\mu_0H_m = 35 T, but it abruptly disappears beyond HmH_m. On the contrary, field-induced superconductivity was reported beyond μ0Hm\mu_0H_m = 40-50 T in a magnetic field tilted by 2530deg\simeq25-30\deg from b in the (b,c) plane. Here we explore the phase diagram of UTe2 under these two magnetic-field directions. Zero-resistance measurements permit to confirm unambiguously that superconductivity is established beyond Hm in the tilted-field direction. While superconductivity is locked exactly at fields either smaller (for a H || b), or larger (for H tilted by 27deg\simeq27\deg from b to c), than Hm, the variations of the Fermi-liquid coefficient in the electrical resistivity and of the residual resistivity are surprisingly similar for the two field directions. The resemblance of the normal states for the two field directions puts constraints for theoretical models of superconductivity and implies that some subtle ingredients must be in play.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2007.06009,
  title  = {Comparison of two superconducting phases induced by a magnetic field in UTe2},
  author = {W. Knafo and M. Nardone and M. Valiska and A. Zitouni and G. Lapertot and D. Aoki and G. Knebel and D. Braithwaite},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2007.06009},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

18 pages, 5 Figures, includes Supplementary Information (9 pages, 8 Figures)