English

Field-induced transition from even to odd parity superconductivity in CeRh$_2$As$_2$

Superconductivity 2021-09-10 v1 Strongly Correlated Electrons

Abstract

We report the discovery of two-phase unconventional superconductivity in CeRh2_2As2_2. Using thermodynamic probes, we establish that the superconducting critical field of its high-field phase is as high as 14 T, remarkable in a material whose transition temperature is 0.26 K. Furthermore, a cc-axis field drives a transition between two different superconducting phases. In spite of the fact that CeRh2_2As2_2 is globally centrosymmetric, we show that local inversion-symmetry breaking at the Ce sites enables Rashba spin-orbit coupling to play a key role in the underlying physics. More detailed analysis identifies the transition from the low- to high-field states to be associated with one between states of even and odd parity.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2101.09522,
  title  = {Field-induced transition from even to odd parity superconductivity in CeRh$_2$As$_2$},
  author = {S. Khim and J. F. Landaeta and J. Banda and N. Bannor and M. Brando and P. M. R. Brydon and D. Hafner and R. Küchler and R. Cardoso-Gil and U. Stockert and A. P. Mackenzie and D. F. Agterberg and C. Geibel and E. Hassinger},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2101.09522},
  year   = {2021}
}