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Title: Spatial control of heavy-fermion superconductivity in CeIrIn5

Abstract

While crystals of strongly correlated metals exhibit a diverse set of electronic ground states, few approaches exist for spatially modulating their properties. In this study, we demonstrate disorder-free control, on the micrometer scale, over the superconducting state in samples of the heavy-fermion superconductor CeIrIn5. We pattern crystals by focused ion beam milling to tailor the boundary conditions for the elastic deformation upon thermal contraction during cooling. The resulting nonuniform strain fields induce complex patterns of superconductivity, owing to the strong dependence of the transition temperature on the strength and direction of strain. These findings showcase a generic approach to manipulating electronic order on micrometer length scales in strongly correlated matter without compromising the cleanliness, stoichiometry, or mean free path.

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [2];  [3]; ORCiD logo [4]; ORCiD logo [5]; ORCiD logo [5];  [1]; ORCiD logo [5]; ORCiD logo [5];  [5];  [2]; ORCiD logo [2];  [1];  [5]; ORCiD logo [6]; ORCiD logo [7]; ORCiD logo [7]; ORCiD logo [7]; ORCiD logo [7] more »; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [8];  [4] « less
  1. Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, D-01187 Dresden, Germany., School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews KY16 9SS, UK.
  2. Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
  3. Institute for Theoretical Physics, Technical University Dresden, D-01062 Dresden, Germany.
  4. Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, D-01187 Dresden, Germany., Institute of Material Science and Engineering, Γ‰cole Polytechnique FΓ©dΓ©ral de Lausanne (EPFL), 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
  5. Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, D-01187 Dresden, Germany.
  6. Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, D-01187 Dresden, Germany., Physik-Department, Technische UniversitΓ€t MΓΌnchen, Garching, D-85748 Germany.
  7. Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA.
  8. Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA., Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division; German Research Foundation (DFG); National Science Foundation (NSF); European Research Council (ERC)
OSTI Identifier:
1570501
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1617015
Grant/Contract Number:  
SC0015947; DMR-1719875; DMR-1157490; DMR-1644779
Resource Type:
Published Article
Journal Name:
Science
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: Science Journal Volume: 366 Journal Issue: 6462; Journal ID: ISSN 0036-8075
Publisher:
AAAS
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY; 77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY; Strain tuning; Strain engineering; Spatial control; Scanning SQUID microscopy; Unconventional superconductivity

Citation Formats

Bachmann, Maja D., Ferguson, G. M., Theuss, Florian, Meng, Tobias, Putzke, Carsten, Helm, Toni, Shirer, K. R., Li, You-Sheng, Modic, K. A., Nicklas, Michael, KΓΆnig, Markus, Low, D., Ghosh, Sayak, Mackenzie, Andrew P., Arnold, Frank, Hassinger, Elena, McDonald, Ross D., Winter, Laurel E., Bauer, Eric D., Ronning, Filip, Ramshaw, B. J., Nowack, Katja C., and Moll, Philip J. W. Spatial control of heavy-fermion superconductivity in CeIrIn5. United States: N. p., 2019. Web. doi:10.1126/science.aao6640.
Bachmann, Maja D., Ferguson, G. M., Theuss, Florian, Meng, Tobias, Putzke, Carsten, Helm, Toni, Shirer, K. R., Li, You-Sheng, Modic, K. A., Nicklas, Michael, KΓΆnig, Markus, Low, D., Ghosh, Sayak, Mackenzie, Andrew P., Arnold, Frank, Hassinger, Elena, McDonald, Ross D., Winter, Laurel E., Bauer, Eric D., Ronning, Filip, Ramshaw, B. J., Nowack, Katja C., & Moll, Philip J. W. Spatial control of heavy-fermion superconductivity in CeIrIn5. United States. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aao6640
Bachmann, Maja D., Ferguson, G. M., Theuss, Florian, Meng, Tobias, Putzke, Carsten, Helm, Toni, Shirer, K. R., Li, You-Sheng, Modic, K. A., Nicklas, Michael, KΓΆnig, Markus, Low, D., Ghosh, Sayak, Mackenzie, Andrew P., Arnold, Frank, Hassinger, Elena, McDonald, Ross D., Winter, Laurel E., Bauer, Eric D., Ronning, Filip, Ramshaw, B. J., Nowack, Katja C., and Moll, Philip J. W. Thu . "Spatial control of heavy-fermion superconductivity in CeIrIn5". United States. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aao6640.
@article{osti_1570501,
title = {Spatial control of heavy-fermion superconductivity in CeIrIn5},
author = {Bachmann, Maja D. and Ferguson, G. M. and Theuss, Florian and Meng, Tobias and Putzke, Carsten and Helm, Toni and Shirer, K. R. and Li, You-Sheng and Modic, K. A. and Nicklas, Michael and KΓΆnig, Markus and Low, D. and Ghosh, Sayak and Mackenzie, Andrew P. and Arnold, Frank and Hassinger, Elena and McDonald, Ross D. and Winter, Laurel E. and Bauer, Eric D. and Ronning, Filip and Ramshaw, B. J. and Nowack, Katja C. and Moll, Philip J. W.},
abstractNote = {While crystals of strongly correlated metals exhibit a diverse set of electronic ground states, few approaches exist for spatially modulating their properties. In this study, we demonstrate disorder-free control, on the micrometer scale, over the superconducting state in samples of the heavy-fermion superconductor CeIrIn5. We pattern crystals by focused ion beam milling to tailor the boundary conditions for the elastic deformation upon thermal contraction during cooling. The resulting nonuniform strain fields induce complex patterns of superconductivity, owing to the strong dependence of the transition temperature on the strength and direction of strain. These findings showcase a generic approach to manipulating electronic order on micrometer length scales in strongly correlated matter without compromising the cleanliness, stoichiometry, or mean free path.},
doi = {10.1126/science.aao6640},
journal = {Science},
number = 6462,
volume = 366,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Oct 10 00:00:00 EDT 2019},
month = {Thu Oct 10 00:00:00 EDT 2019}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aao6640

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 21 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Figures / Tables:

Figure 1 Figure 1: The superconducting transition in a slab under biaxial strain (A) Sketch of the distortion of a thin slab of CeIrIn5 coupled to sapphire at low temperatures. (B) Optical image of a slab 2 ΞΌm in thickness cut by FIB machining in the (a,c) plane. (C)Tc-map across the samplemore » arising from the strain profile and the strain-dependence of Tc estimated from finite element simulations. (D-F) Top: Local susceptibility images at three representative temperatures. A negative diamagnetic susceptibility indicates superconducting regions of the sample. Bottom: Superconducting regions (white) calculated from the strain profile in the device. The calculated regions correspond to constant temperature contours of the Tc-map in (C).« less

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Figures/Tables have been extracted from DOE-funded journal article accepted manuscripts.