Magnetic Field-Induced Superconductivity in the Ferromagnet URhGe

Authors:

26 August 2005

journal article
other
Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science

Vol. 309 (5739) , 1343-1346
DOI:10.1126/science.1115498
PMID:16123293

Abstract

In several metals, including URhGe, superconductivity has recently been observed to appear and coexist with ferromagnetism at temperatures well below that at which the ferromagnetic state forms. However, the material characteristics leading to such a state of coexistence have not yet been fully elucidated. We report that in URhGe there is a magnetic transition where the direction of the spin axis changes when a magnetic field of 12 tesla is applied parallel to the crystal b axis. We also report that a second pocket of superconductivity occurs at low temperature for a range of fields enveloping this magnetic transition, well above the field of 2 tesla at which superconductivity is first destroyed. Our findings strongly suggest that excitations in which the spins rotate stimulate superconductivity in the neighborhood of a quantum phase transition under high magnetic field.

Keywords

This publication has 18 references indexed in Scilit:

$p$ -Wave Superconductivity in the Ferromagnetic Superconductor URhGe
Physical Review Letters, 2005
Superconductivity and vortex phases in the two-dimensional organic conductor $λ − {(BETS)}_{2} {Fe}_{x} {Ga}_{1 - x} {Cl}_{4} (x = 0.45)$
Physical Review B, 2005
Magnetic-field-induced superconductivity in the antiferromagnetic organic superconductor $κ − {(BETS)}_{2} Fe {Br}_{4}$
Physical Review B, 2004
The break-up of heavy electrons at a quantum critical point
Nature, 2003
Superconducting states in ferromagnetic metals
Physical Review B, 2002
Pressure Dependence of the Magnetization in the Ferromagnetic Superconductor $U G e_{2}$
Physical Review Letters, 2002
Anisotropy and pressure dependence of the upper critical field of the ferromagnetic superconductor ${UGe}_{2}$
Physical Review B, 2001
Quantum critical effects on transition temperature of magnetically mediatedp-wave superconductivity
Physical Review B, 2001
Observation of Magnetic-Field-Induced Superconductivity
Physical Review Letters, 1984
Coexistence of $p$ -state superconductivity and itinerant ferromagnetism
Physical Review B, 1980