No Arabic abstract
Superconductivity without phonons has been proposed for strongly correlated electron materials that are tuned close to a zero-temperature magnetic instability of itinerant charge carriers. Near this boundary, quantum fluctuations of magnetic degrees of freedom assume the role of phonons in conventional superconductors, creating an attractive interaction that glues electrons into superconducting pairs. Here we show that superconductivity can arise from a very different spectrum of fluctuations associated with a local or Kondo-breakdown quantum-critical point that is revealed in isotropic scattering of charge carriers and a sub-linear temperature-dependent electrical resistivity. At this critical point, accessed by applying pressure to the strongly correlated, local-moment antiferromagnet CeRhIn5, magnetic and charge fluctuations coexist and produce electronic scattering that is maximal at the optimal pressure for superconductivity. This previously unanticipated source of pairing glue opens possibilities for understanding and discovering new unconventional forms of superconductivity.
We grew single crystals of the recently discovered heavy fermion superconductor UTe2, and measured the resistivity, specific heat and magnetoresistance. Superconductivity (SC) was clearly detected at Tsc=1.65K as sharp drop of the resistivity in a high quality sample of RRR=35. The specific heat shows a large jump at Tsc indicating strong coupling. The large Sommerfeld coefficient, 117mJ K-2mol-1 extrapolated in the normal state and the temperature dependence of C/T below Tsc are the signature of unconventional SC. The discrepancy in the entropy balance at Tsc between SC and normal states points out that hidden features must occur. Surprisingly, a large residual value of the Sommerfeld coefficient seems quite robust (gamma_0/gamma ~ 0.5). The large upper critical field Hc2 along the three principal axes favors spin-triplet SC. For H // b-axis, our experiments do not reproduce the huge upturn of Hc2 reported previously. This discrepancy may reflect that Hc2 is very sensitive to the sample quality. A new perspective in UTe2 is the proximity of a Kondo semiconducting phase predicted by the LDA band structure calculations.
The phase diagram of the layered organic superconductor $kappa$-(ET)$_{2}$Cu[N(CN)$_{2}$]Cl has been accurately measured from a combination of $^{1}$H NMR and AC susceptibility techniques under helium gas pressure. The domains of stability of antiferromagnetic and superconducting long-range orders in the pressure {it vs} temperature plane have been determined. Both phases overlap through a first-order boundary that separates two regions of inhomogeneous phase coexistence. The boundary curve is found to merge with another first order line related to the metal-insulator transition in the paramagnetic region. This transition is found to evolve into a crossover regime above a critical point at higher temperature. The whole phase diagram features a point-like region where metallic, insulating, antiferromagnetic and non s-wave superconducting phases all meet.
High-temperature superconductivity emerges in a host of different quantum materials, often in a region of the phase diagram where the electronic kinetic energy is comparable in magnitude with the electron-electron Coulomb repulsion. Describing such an intermediate-coupling regime has proven challenging, as standard perturbative approaches are inapplicable. Hence, it is of enormous interest to find models that are amenable to be solved using exact methods. While important advances have been made in elucidating the properties of one such minimal model -- the Hubbard model -- via numerical simulations, the infamous fermionic sign-problem significantly limits the accessible parameter space. Here, we employ Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) methods to solve a multi-band version of the Hubbard model that does not suffer from the sign-problem and in which only repulsive interband interactions are present. In contrast to previous sign-problem-free QMC studies, this model does not have pre-existing fine-tuned magnetic order, and thus treats superconducting, magnetic, and charge degrees of freedom on an equal footing. We find that, as the electron-electron repulsion increases, a dome of antiferromagnetic order emerges in the intermediate-coupling regime, accompanied by a metal-to-insulator crossover line. Superconductivity is found only near the antiferromagnetic quantum phase transition located on the metallic side of the magnetic dome. Across the antiferromagnetic quantum phase transition we find a change in the dynamical character of the magnetic fluctuations, from slow and overdamped in the metallic side to fast and propagating in the insulating side. Our findings shed new light on the intertwining between superconductivity, magnetism, and charge correlations in quantum materials.
A variety of strange metals exhibit resistivity that decreases linearly with temperature as $Trightarrow 0$, in contrast with conventional metals where resistivity decreases as $T^2$. This $T$-linear resistivity has been attributed to charge carriers scattering at a rate given by $hbar/tau=alpha k_{rm B} T$, where $alpha$ is a constant of order unity. This simple relationship between the scattering rate and temperature is observed across a wide variety of materials, suggesting a fundamental upper limit on scattering---the Planckian limit---but little is known about the underlying origins of this limit. Here we report a measurement of the angle-dependent magnetoresistance (ADMR) of Nd-LSCO---a hole-doped cuprate that displays $T$-linear resistivity down to the lowest measured temperatures. The ADMR unveils a well-defined Fermi surface that agrees quantitatively with angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) measurements and reveals a $T$-linear scattering rate that saturates the Planckian limit, namely $alpha = 1.2 pm 0.4$. Remarkably, we find that this Planckian scattering rate is isotropic, i.e. it is independent of direction, in contrast with expectations from hot-spot models. Our findings suggest that $T$-linear resistivity in strange metals emerges from a momentum-independent inelastic scattering rate that reaches the Planckian limit.
Since the discovery of superconductivity in LaFePO in 2006, numerous iron-based superconductors have been identified within diverse structure families, all of which combine iron with a group-V (pnictogen) or group-VI (chalco- gen) element. Unconventional superconductivity is extremely rare among transition metal compounds outside these layered iron systems and the cuprates, and it is almost universally associated with highly anisotropic electronic properties and nearly 2D Fermi surface geometries. The iron-based intermetallic YFe$_2$Ge$_2$ features a 3D Fermi surface and a strongly enhanced low temperature heat capacity, which signals strong electronic correlations. We present data from a new generation of high quality samples of YFe$_2$Ge$_2$, which show superconducting transition anomalies below 1.8 K in thermodynamic as well as transport measurements, establishing that superconductivity is intrinsic in this layered iron compound outside the known superconducting iron pnictide or chalcogenide families. The Fermi surface geometry of YFe$_2$Ge$_2$ resembles that of KFe$_2$As$_2$ in the high pressure collapsed tetragonal phase, in which superconductivity at temperatures as high as 10 K has recently been reported, suggesting an underlying connection between the two systems.