High quality single crystals of heavy Fermion CeCoIn5 superconductor have been grown by flux method with a typical size of (1~2)mm x (1~2)mm x ~0.1 mm. The single crystals are characterized by structural analysis from X-ray diffraction and Laue diffraction, as well as compositional analysis. Magnetic and electrical measurements on the single crystals show a sharp superconducting transition with a transition temperature at Tc(onset) ~ 2.3 K and a transition width of ~0.15 K. The resistivity of the CeCoIn5 crystal exhibits a hump at ~45 K which is typical of a heavy Fermion system. High resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) measurements of CeCoIn5 reveal clear Fermi surface sheets that are consistent with the band structure calculations when assuming itinerant Ce 4f electrons at low temperature. This work provides important information on the electronic structure of heavy Fermion CeCoIn5 superconductor. It also lays a foundation for further studies on the physical properties and superconducting mechanism of the heavy Fermion superconductors.
The London penetration depth, $lambda (T)$ was measured in single crystals of Ce$_{1-x}R_x$CoIn$_5$, $R$=La, Nd and Yb down to 50~mK ($T_c/T sim$50) using a tunnel-diode resonator. In the cleanest samples $Delta lambda (T)$ is best described by the power law, $Delta lambda (T) propto T^{n}$, with $n sim 1$, consistent with line nodes. Substitutions of Ce with La, Nd and Yb lead to similar monotonic suppressions of $T_c$, however the effects on $Delta lambda(T)$ differ. While La and Nd doping results in an increase of the exponent to $n sim 2$, as expected for a dirty nodal superconductor, Yb doping leads to $n > 3$, inconsistent with nodes, suggesting a change from nodal to nodeless superconductivity where Fermi surface topology changes were reported, implying that the nodal structure and Fermi surface topology are closely linked.
Solution growth of single crystals of the recently reported new compound Ce2PdIn8 was investigated. When growing from a stoichiometry in a range 2:1:20 - 2:1:35, single crystals of CeIn3 covered by a thin (~50 um) single-crystalline layer of Ce2PdIn8 were mostly obtained. Using palladium richer compositions the thickness of the Ce2PdIn8 layers were increased, which allowed mechanical extraction of single-phase slabs of the desired compound suitable for a thorough study of magnetism and superconductivity. In some solution growth products also CePd3In6 (LaNi3In6 - type of structure) and traces of phases with the stoichiometry CePd2In7, Ce1.5Pd1.5In7 (determined only by EDX) have been identified. Magnetic measurements of the Ce2PdIn8 single crystals reveal paramagnetic behaviour of the Ce3+ ions with significant magnetocrystalline anisotropy. Above 70 K the magnetic susceptibility follows the Curie-Weiss law with considerably different values of the paramagnetic Curie temperature, for the magnetic field applied along the a- (-90 K) and c-(-50 K) axis. Below the reported critical temperature for superconductivity Tc (0.69 K) the electrical resistivity drops to zero. Comparative measurements of the electrical resistivity, heat capacity and AC susceptibility of several crystals reveal that the superconducting transition is strongly sample-dependent.
Understanding the origin of superconductivity in strongly correlated electron systems continues to be at the forefront of unsolved problems in all of physics. Among the heavy f-electron systems, CeCoIn5 is one of the most fascinating, as it shares many of the characteristics of correlated d-electron high-Tc cuprate and pnictide superconductors, including the competition between antiferromagnetism and superconductivity. While there has been evidence for unconventional pairing in this compound, high-resolution spectroscopic measurements of the superconducting state have been lacking. Previously, we have used high-resolution scanning tunneling microscopy techniques to visualize the emergence of heavy-fermion excitations in CeCoIn5 and demonstrate the composite nature of these excitations well above Tc. Here we extend these techniques to much lower temperatures to investigate how superconductivity develops within a strongly correlated band of composite excitations. We find the spectrum of heavy excitations to be strongly modified just prior to the onset of superconductivity by a suppression of the spectral weight near the Fermi energy, reminiscent of the pseudogap state in the cuprates. By measuring the response of superconductivity to various perturbations, through both quasiparticle interference and local pair-breaking experiments, we demonstrate the nodal d-wave character of superconducting pairing in CeCoIn5.
We present different transport measurements up to fields of 29~T in the recently discovered heavy-fermion superconductor UTe$_{2}$ with magnetic field $H$ applied along the easy magnetization a-axis of the body-centered orthorhombic structure. The thermoelectric power varies linearly with temperature above the superconducting transition, $T_{SC}= 1.5$ K, indicating that superconductivity develops in a Fermi liquid regime. As a function of field the thermolelectric power shows successive anomalies which are attributed to field-induced Fermi surface instabilities. These Fermi-surface instabilities appear at critical values of the magnetic polarization. Remarkably, the lowest magnetic field instability for $Hparallel a$ occurs for the same critical value of the magnetization (0.4 $mu_B$) than the first order metamagnetic transition at 35~T for field applied along the $b$-axis. The estimated number of charge carriers at low temperature reveals a metallic ground state distinct from LDA calculations indicating that strong electronic correlations are a major issue in this compound.
The formation of heavy fermion bands can occur by means of the conversion of a periodic array of local moments into itinerant electrons via the Kondo effect and the huge consequent Fermi-liquid renormalizations. Leggett predicted for liquid $^3$He that Fermi-liquid renormalizations change in the superconducting state, leading to a temperature dependence of the London penetration depth~$Lambda$ quite different from that in the BCS theory. Using Leggetts theory, as modified for heavy fermions, it is possible to extract from the measured temperature dependence of $Lambda$ in high quality samples both Landau parameters $F_0^s$ and $F_1^s$; this has never been accomplished before. A modification of the temperature dependence of the specific heat $C_mathrm{el}$, related to that of $Lambda$, is also expected. We have carefully determined the magnitude and temperature dependence of $Lambda$ in CeCoIn$_5$ by muon spin relaxation rate measurements to obtain $F_0^s = 36 pm 1$ and $F_1^s = 1.2 pm 0.3$, and find a consistent change in the temperature dependence of electronic specific heat $C_mathrm{el}$. This, the first determination of $F_1^s$ with a value~$ll F_0^s$ in a heavy fermion compound, tests the basic assumption of the theory of heavy fermions, that the frequency dependence of the self-energy is much more important than its momentum dependence.