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Unconventional superconductivity frequently emerges as the transition temperature of a magnetic phase, typically antiferromagnetic, is suppressed continuously toward zero temperature. Here, we report contrary behavior in pressurized CeRhGe3, a non-centrosymmetric heavy fermion compound. We find that its pressure-tuned antiferromagnetic transition temperature (TN) appears to avoid a continuous decrease to zero temperature by terminating abruptly above a dome of pressure-induced superconductivity. Near 21.5 GPa, evidence for TN suddenly vanishes, the electrical resistance becomes linear in temperature and the superconducting transition reaches a maximum. In light of X-ray absorption spectroscopy measurements, these characteristics appear to be related to a pressured-induced Ce valence instability, which reveals as a sharp increase in the rate of change of Ce valence with applied pressure.
We report the discovery of superconductivity in pressurized CeRhGe3, until now the only remaining non-superconducting member of the isostructural family of non-centrosymmetric heavy-fermion compounds CeTX3 (T = Co, Rh, Ir and X = Si, Ge). Superconductivity appears in CeRhGe3 at a pressure of 19.6 GPa and the transition temperature Tc reaches a maximum value of 1.3 K at 21.5 GPa. This finding provides an opportunity to establish systematic correlations between superconductivity and materials properties within this family. Though ambient-pressure unit-cell volumes and critical pressures for superconductivity vary substantially across the series, all family members reach a maximum Tcmax at a common critical cell volume Vcrit, and Tcmax at Vcrit increases with increasing spin-orbit coupling strength of the d-electrons. These correlations show that substantial Kondo hybridization and spin-orbit coupling favor superconductivity in this family, the latter reflecting the role of broken centro-symmetry.
In this chapter we discuss the physical properties of a particular family of non-centrosymmetric superconductors belonging to the class heavy-fermion compounds. This group includes the ferromagnet UIr and the antiferromagnets CeRhSi3, CeIrSi3, CeCoGe3, CeIrGe3 and CePt3Si, of which all but CePt3Si become superconducting only under pressure. Each of these superconductors has intriguing and interesting properties. We first analyze CePt3Si, then review CeRhSi3, CeIrSi3, CeCoGe3 and CeIrGe3, which are very similar to each other in their magnetic and electrical properties, and finally discuss UIr. For each material we discuss the crystal structure, magnetic order, occurrence of superconductivity, phase diagram, characteristic parameters, superconducting properties and pairing states. We present an overview of the similarities and differences between all these six compounds at the end.
One of the most strikingly universal features of the high temperature superconductors is that the superconducting phase emerges in the close proximity of the antiferromagnetic phase, and the interplay between these two phases poses a long standing challenge. It is commonly believed that,as the antiferromagnetic transition temperature is continuously suppressed to zero, there appears a quantum critical point, around which the existence of antiferromagnetic fluctuation is responsible for the development of the superconductivity. In contrast to this scenario, we report the discovery of a bi-critical point identified at 2.88 GPa and 26.02 K in the pressurized high quality single crystal Ca0.73La0.27FeAs2 by complementary in situ high pressure measurements. At the critical pressure, we find that the antiferromagnetism suddenly disappears and superconductivity simultaneously emerges at almost the same temperature, and that the external magnetic field suppresses the superconducting transition temperature but hardly affects the antiferromagnetic transition temperature.
The superconducting gap structure of recently discovered heavy fermion superconductor PrOs4Sb12 was investigated by using thermal transport measurements in magnetic field rotated relative to the crystal axes. We demonstrate that a novel change in the symmetry of the superconducting gap function occurs deep inside the superconducting state, giving a clear indication of the presence of two distinct superconducting phases with twofold and fourfold symmetries. We infer that the gap functions in both phases have a point node singularity, in contrast to the familiar line node singularity observed in almost all unconventional superconductors.
We report a 29Si-NMR study on the pressure-induced superconductivity (SC) in an antiferromagnetic (AFM) heavy-fermion compound CeIrSi3 without inversion symmetry. In the SC state at P=2.7-2.8 GPa, the temperature dependence of the nuclear-spin lattice relaxation rate 1/T_1 below Tc exhibits a T^3 behavior without any coherence peak just below Tc, revealing the presence of line nodes in the SC gap. In the normal state, 1/T_1 follows a sqrt{T}-like behavior, suggesting that the SC emerges under the non-Fermi liquid state dominated by AFM spin fluctuations enhanced around quantum critical point (QCP). The reason why the maximum Tc in CeIrSi3 is relatively high among the Ce-based heavy-fermion superconductors may be the existence of the strong AFM spin fluctuations. We discuss the comparison with the other Ce-based heavy-fermion superconductors.