Intertwined Orders in Heavy-Fermion Superconductor CeCoIn$_5$
Abstract
The appearance of spin-density-wave (SDW) magnetic order in the low-temperature and high-field corner of the superconducting phase diagram of CeCoIn is unique among unconventional superconductors. The nature of this magnetic phase is a matter of current debate. Here, we present the thermal conductivity of CeCoIn in a rotating magnetic field, which reveals the presence of an additional order inside the phase that is intimately intertwined with the superconducting -wave and SDW orders. A discontinuous change of the thermal conductivity within the phase, when the magnetic field is rotated about antinodes of the superconducting -wave order parameter, demands that the additional order must change abruptly together with the recently observed switching of the SDW. A combination of interactions, where spin-orbit coupling orients the SDW, which then selects the secondary -wave pair-density-wave component (with an average amplitude of 20\% of the primary -wave order parameter), accounts for the observed behavior.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1606.05015,
title = {Intertwined Orders in Heavy-Fermion Superconductor CeCoIn$_5$},
author = {Duk Y. Kim and Shi-Zeng Lin and Franziska Weickert and Michel Kenzelmann and Eric D. Bauer and Filip Ronning and J. D. Thompson and Roman Movshovich},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1606.05015},
year = {2016}
}