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Title: Incommensurate Spin Fluctuations in the Spin-Triplet Superconductor Candidate UTe2

Abstract

Spin-triplet superconductors are of extensive current interest because they can host topological state and Majorana fermions important for quantum computation. The uranium-based heavy-fermion superconductor UTe2 has been argued as a spin-triplet superconductor similar to UGe2, URhGe, and UCoGe, where the superconducting phase is near (or coexists with) a ferromagnetic (FM) instability and spin-triplet electron pairing is driven by FM spin fluctuations. Here we use neutron scattering to show that, although UTe2 exhibits no static magnetic order down to 0.3 K, its magnetism in the [0,K,L] plane is dominated by incommensurate spin fluctuations near an antiferromagnetic ordering wave vector and extends to at least 2.6 meV. We are able to understand the dominant incommensurate spin fluctuations of UTe2 in terms of its electronic structure calculated using a combined density-functional and dynamic mean-field theory.

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [2]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [4];  [1]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Rice Univ., Houston, TX (United States)
  2. Univ. of California, San Diego, CA (United States)
  3. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  4. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States). Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Rice Univ., Houston, TX (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program; National Science Foundation (NSF)
OSTI Identifier:
1735405
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1760601; OSTI ID: 1773812
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-20-24870
Journal ID: ISSN 0031-9007; TRN: US2205214
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC05-00OR22725; SC0012311; FG02-04-ER46105; DMR-1810310; SC0018197; 89233218CNA000001
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Physical Review Letters
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 125; Journal Issue: 23; Journal ID: ISSN 0031-9007
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY; Spin-singlet pairing; spin-triplet pairing; superconducting fluctuations

Citation Formats

Duan, Chunruo, Sasmal, Kalyan, Maple, M. Brian, Podlesnyak, Andrey, Zhu, Jian-Xin, Si, Qimiao, and Dai, Pengcheng. Incommensurate Spin Fluctuations in the Spin-Triplet Superconductor Candidate UTe2. United States: N. p., 2020. Web. doi:10.1103/physrevlett.125.237003.
Duan, Chunruo, Sasmal, Kalyan, Maple, M. Brian, Podlesnyak, Andrey, Zhu, Jian-Xin, Si, Qimiao, & Dai, Pengcheng. Incommensurate Spin Fluctuations in the Spin-Triplet Superconductor Candidate UTe2. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.125.237003
Duan, Chunruo, Sasmal, Kalyan, Maple, M. Brian, Podlesnyak, Andrey, Zhu, Jian-Xin, Si, Qimiao, and Dai, Pengcheng. Tue . "Incommensurate Spin Fluctuations in the Spin-Triplet Superconductor Candidate UTe2". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.125.237003. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1735405.
@article{osti_1735405,
title = {Incommensurate Spin Fluctuations in the Spin-Triplet Superconductor Candidate UTe2},
author = {Duan, Chunruo and Sasmal, Kalyan and Maple, M. Brian and Podlesnyak, Andrey and Zhu, Jian-Xin and Si, Qimiao and Dai, Pengcheng},
abstractNote = {Spin-triplet superconductors are of extensive current interest because they can host topological state and Majorana fermions important for quantum computation. The uranium-based heavy-fermion superconductor UTe2 has been argued as a spin-triplet superconductor similar to UGe2, URhGe, and UCoGe, where the superconducting phase is near (or coexists with) a ferromagnetic (FM) instability and spin-triplet electron pairing is driven by FM spin fluctuations. Here we use neutron scattering to show that, although UTe2 exhibits no static magnetic order down to 0.3 K, its magnetism in the [0,K,L] plane is dominated by incommensurate spin fluctuations near an antiferromagnetic ordering wave vector and extends to at least 2.6 meV. We are able to understand the dominant incommensurate spin fluctuations of UTe2 in terms of its electronic structure calculated using a combined density-functional and dynamic mean-field theory.},
doi = {10.1103/physrevlett.125.237003},
journal = {Physical Review Letters},
number = 23,
volume = 125,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Dec 01 00:00:00 EST 2020},
month = {Tue Dec 01 00:00:00 EST 2020}
}

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