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  • Accepted Manuscript: Quantum critical quasiparticle scattering within the superconducting state of CeCoIn5

Title: Quantum critical quasiparticle scattering within the superconducting state of CeCoIn5

Here, the thermal conductivity κ of the heavy-fermion metal CeCoIn5 was measured in the normal and superconducting states as a function of temperature T and magnetic field H, for a current and field parallel to the [100] direction. Inside the superconducting state, when the field is lower than the upper critical field Hc2, κ/T is found to increase as T→0, just as in a metal and in contrast to the behavior of all known superconductors. This is due to unpaired electrons on part of the Fermi surface, which dominate the transport above a certain field. The evolution of κ/T with field reveals that the electron-electron scattering (or transport mass m*) of those unpaired electrons diverges as H→Hc2 from below, in the same way that it does in the normal state as H→Hc2 from above. This shows that the unpaired electrons sense the proximity of the field-tuned quantum critical point of CeCoIn5 at H*=Hc2 even from inside the superconducting state. In conclusion, the fact that the quantum critical scattering of the unpaired electrons is much weaker than the average scattering of all electrons in the normal state reveals a k-space correlation between the strength of pairing and the strength of scattering,more » pointing to a common mechanism, presumably antiferromagnetic fluctuations.« less
Authors:
 [1] ;  [2] ;  [3] ;  [4] ;  [5] ;  [6]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States). Center for Nanophysics and Advanced Materials, Dept. of Physics; Canadian Inst. for Advanced Research, Toronto (Canada)
  2. Univ. of Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke (Canada). Dept. of Physical and RQMP; Ames Lab. and Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
  3. Univ. of Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke (Canada). Dept. of Physics and RQMP
  4. Isfahan Univ. of Technology, Isfahan (Iran). Dept. of Physics
  5. Canadian Inst. for Advanced Research, Toronto (Canada); Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States). Dept. of Physics
  6. Canadian Inst. for Advanced Research, Toronto (Canada); Univ. of Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke (Canada). Dept. of Physics and RQMP
Publication Date:
Report Number(s):
IS-J--9062
Journal ID: ISSN 0031-9007; PRLTAO
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-07CH11358; AC02-98CH10886; DMR-0952716
Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Physical Review Letters
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 117; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 0031-9007
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)
Research Org:
Ames Laboratory (AMES), Ames, IA (United States)
Sponsoring Org:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
OSTI Identifier:
1326835
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1326835