English

Simultaneous suppression of ferromagnetism and superconductivity in UCoGe by Si substitution

Superconductivity 2009-11-13 v1 Strongly Correlated Electrons

Abstract

We investigate the effect of substituting Si for Ge in the ferromagnetic superconductor UCoGe. Dc-magnetization, ac-susceptibility and electrical resistivity measurements on polycrystalline UCoGe1x_{1-x}Six_x samples show that ferromagnetic order and superconductivity are progressively depressed with increasing Si content and simultaneously vanish at a critical concentration xcr0.12x_{cr} \simeq 0.12. The non-Fermi liquid temperature variation in the electrical resistivity near xcrx_{cr} and the smooth depression of the ordered moment point to a continuous ferromagnetic quantum phase transition. Superconductivity is confined to the ferromagnetic phase, which provides further evidence for magnetically mediated superconductivity.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0804.1891,
  title  = {Simultaneous suppression of ferromagnetism and superconductivity in UCoGe by Si substitution},
  author = {D. E. de Nijs and N. T. Huy and A. de Visser},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0804.1891},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

5 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in PRB