Unconventional superconductivity in Cr-based compound Pr3Cr10−xN11
Source abstract
Abstract
Abstract We report results of specific heat and muon spin relaxation (μSR) measurements on a polycrystalline sample of Pr3Cr10−xN11, which shows superconducting state below Tc = 5.25 K, a large upper critical field Hc2 ~ 20 T and a residual Sommerfeld coefficient γ0. The field dependence of γ0(H) resembles γ of the U-based superconductors UTe2 and URhGe at low temperatures. The temperature-dependent superfluid density measured by transverse-field μSR experiments is consistent with a p-wave pairing symmetry. ZF-μSR experiment suggests a time-reversal symmetry broken superconducting transition, and temperature-independent spin fluctuations at low temperatures are revealed by LF-μSR experiments. These results indicate that Pr3Cr10−xN11 is a candidate of p-wave superconductor which breaks time-reversal symmetry.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline
Research context
OpenAlex topics: Advanced Condensed Matter Physics · Magnetic and transport properties of perovskites and related materials · Inorganic Chemistry and Materials
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
References (80)
Show source-provided references
1. Wilczek, F. Majorana returns. Nat. Phys. 5, 614–618 (2009).10.1038/nphys1380 ↗
2. Stern, A. Non-abelian states of matter. Nature 464, 187–193 (2010).10.1038/nature08915 ↗
3. Luke, G. M. et al. Time-reversal symmetry-breaking superconductivity in Sr2RuO4. Nature 394, 558–561 (1998).10.1038/29038 ↗
4. Mackenzie, A. P. & Maeno, Y. The superconductivity of Sr2RuO4 and the physics of spin-triplet pairing. Rev. Mod. Phys. 75, 657–712 (2003).10.1103/RevModPhys.75.657 ↗
5. Nelson, K. D., Mao, Z. Q., Maeno, Y. & Liu, Y. Odd-parity superconductivity in Sr2RuO4. Science 306, 1151–1154 (2004).10.1126/science.1103881 ↗
6. Ishida, K. et al. Spin-triplet superconductivity in Sr2RuO4 identified by 17O Knight shift. Nature 396, 658–660 (1998).10.1038/25315 ↗
7. Mackenzie, A. P., Scaffidi, T., Hicks, C. W. & Maeno, Y. Even odder after twenty-three years: the superconducting order parameter puzzle of Sr2RuO4. NPJ Quantum Mater. 2, 40 (2017).10.1038/s41535-017-0045-4 ↗
8. Kim, B., Khmelevskyi, S., Mazin, I. I., Agterberg, D. F. & Franchini, C. Anisotropy of magnetic interactions and symmetry of the order parameter in unconventional superconductor Sr2RuO4. NPJ Quantum Mater. 2, 37 (2017).10.1038/s41535-017-0041-8 ↗
9. Pustogow, A. et al. Constraints on the superconducting order parameter in Sr2RuO4 from oxygen-17 nuclear magnetic resonance. Nature 574, 72–75 (2019).10.1038/s41586-019-1596-2 ↗
10. Suh, H. G. et al. Stabilizing even-parity chiral superconductivity in Sr2RuO4. Phys. Rev. Res. 2, 032023 (2020).10.1103/PhysRevResearch.2.032023 ↗
11. Ishida, K., Manago, M., Kinjo, K. & Maeno, Y. Reduction of the 17O Knight shift in the superconducting state and the heat-up effect by NMR pulses on Sr2RuO4. J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 89, 034712 (2020).10.7566/JPSJ.89.034712 ↗
12. Petsch, A. N. et al. Reduction of the spin susceptibility in the superconducting state of Sr2RuO4 observed by polarized neutron scattering. Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 217004 (2020).10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.217004 ↗
13. Joynt, R. & Taillefer, L. The superconducting phases of UPt3. Rev. Mod. Phys. 74, 235–294 (2002).10.1103/RevModPhys.74.235 ↗
14. Tou, H. et al. Odd-parity superconductivity with parallel spin pairing in UPt3: evidence from 195Pt Knight shift study. Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 1374–1377 (1996).10.1103/PhysRevLett.77.1374 ↗
15. Fisher, R. A. et al. Specific heat of UPt3: evidence for unconventional superconductivity. Phys. Rev. Lett. 62, 1411–1414 (1989).10.1103/PhysRevLett.62.1411 ↗
16. Schöttl, S. et al. Evidence for unconventional superconductivity in UPt3 from magnetic torque studies. Phys. Rev. B 62, 4124–4131 (2000).10.1103/PhysRevB.62.4124 ↗
17. Lambert, F., Akbari, A., Thalmeier, P. & Eremin, I. Surface state tunneling signatures in the two-component superconductor UPt3. Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 087004 (2017).10.1103/PhysRevLett.118.087004 ↗
18. Ran, S. et al. Nearly ferromagnetic spin-triplet superconductivity. Science 365, 684–687 (2019).10.1126/science.aav8645 ↗
19. Aoki, D. et al. Unconventional superconductivity in UTe2. J. Phys. Condens. Matter 34, 243002 (2022).10.1088/1361-648X/ac5863 ↗
20. Nakamine, G. et al. Superconducting properties of heavy fermion UTe2 revealed by 125Te-nuclear magnetic resonance. J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 88, 113703 (2019).10.7566/JPSJ.88.113703 ↗
21. Metz, T. et al. Point-node gap structure of the spin-triplet superconductor UTe2. Phys. Rev. B 100, 220504 (2019).10.1103/PhysRevB.100.220504 ↗
22. Kittaka, S. et al. Orientation of point nodes and nonunitary triplet pairing tuned by the easy-axis magnetization in UTe2. Phys. Rev. Res. 2, 032014 (2020).10.1103/PhysRevResearch.2.032014 ↗
23. Bae, S. et al. Anomalous normal fluid response in a chiral superconductor UTe2. Nat. Commun. 12, 2644 (2021).10.1038/s41467-021-22906-6 ↗
24. Hayes, I. M. et al. Multicomponent superconducting order parameter in UTe2. Science 373, 797–801 (2021).10.1126/science.abb0272 ↗
25. Wei, D. S. et al. Interplay between magnetism and superconductivity in UTe2. Phys. Rev. B 105, 024521 (2022).10.1103/PhysRevB.105.024521 ↗
26. Wu, W. et al. Superconductivity in the vicinity of antiferromagnetic order in CrAs. Nat. Commun. 5, 5508 (2014).10.1038/ncomms6508 ↗
27. Kotegawa, H., Nakahara, S., Tou, H. & Sugawara, H. Superconductivity of 2.2 K under pressure in helimagnet CrAs. J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 83, 093702 (2014).10.7566/JPSJ.83.093702 ↗
28. Kotegawa, H. et al. Detection of an unconventional superconducting phase in the vicinity of the strong first-order magnetic transition in CrAs using 75As-nuclear quadrupole resonance. Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 117002 (2015).10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.117002 ↗
29. Keller, L. et al. Pressure dependence of the magnetic order in CrAs: a neutron diffraction investigation. Phys. Rev. B 91, 020409 (2015).10.1103/PhysRevB.91.020409 ↗
30. Matsuda, M. et al. Evolution of magnetic double helix and quantum criticality near a dome of superconductivity in CrAs. Phys. Rev. X 8, 031017 (2018).
31. Bao, J.-K. et al. Superconductivity in quasi-one-dimensional K2Cr3As3 with significant electron correlations. Phys. Rev. X 5, 011013 (2015).
32. Tang, Z.-T. et al. Superconductivity in quasi-one-dimensional Cs2Cr3As3 with large interchain distance. Sci. China Mater. 58, 16–20 (2015).10.1007/s40843-015-0021-x ↗
33. Tang, Z.-T. et al. Unconventional superconductivity in quasi-one-dimensional Rb2Cr3As3. Phys. Rev. B 91, 020506 (2015).10.1103/PhysRevB.91.020506 ↗
34. Shao, Y. T. et al. Evidence of line nodes in superconducting gap function in K2Cr3As3 from specific-heat measurements. EPL 123, 57001 (2018).10.1209/0295-5075/123/57001 ↗
35. Adroja, D. T. et al. Superconducting ground state of quasi-one-dimensional K2Cr3As3 investigated using μSR measurements. Phys. Rev. B 92, 134505 (2015).10.1103/PhysRevB.92.134505 ↗
36. Zhi, H. Z., Imai, T., Ning, F. L., Bao, J.-K. & Cao, G.-H. Nmr investigation of the quasi-one-dimensional superconductor K2Cr3As3. Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 147004 (2015).10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.147004 ↗
37. Yang, J., Tang, Z. T., Cao, G. H. & Zheng, G.-Q. Ferromagnetic spin fluctuation and unconventional superconductivity in Rb2Cr3As3 revealed by 75As NMR and NQR. Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 147002 (2015).10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.147002 ↗
38. Luo, J. et al. Tuning the distance to a possible ferromagnetic quantum critical point in A2Cr3As3. Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 047001 (2019).10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.047001 ↗
39. Yang, J. et al. Spin-triplet superconductivity in K2Cr3As3. Sci. Adv. 7, eabl4432 (2021).10.1126/sciadv.abl4432 ↗
40. Wu, W. et al. Superconductivity in chromium nitrides Pr3Cr10−xN11 with strong electron correlations. Natl Sci. Rev. 7, 21–26 (2019).10.1093/nsr/nwz129 ↗
41. Miyake, A. et al. Enhancement and discontinuity of effective mass through the first-order metamagnetic transition in UTe2. J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 90, 103702 (2021).10.7566/JPSJ.90.103702 ↗
42. Zou, Y. et al. Fermi liquid breakdown and evidence for superconductivity in YFe2Ge2. Phys. Status Solidi Rapid Res. Lett. 8, 928–930 (2014).10.1002/pssr.201409418 ↗
43. Zhu, X., Yang, H., Fang, L., Mu, G. & Wen, H.-H. Upper critical field, hall effect and magnetoresistance in the iron-based layered superconductor LaFeAsO0.9F0.1−δ. Supercond. Sci. Technol. 21, 105001 (2008).10.1088/0953-2048/21/10/105001 ↗
44. Singh, D. et al. Time-reversal symmetry breaking in the noncentrosymmetric superconductor $${{{{\rm{Re}}}}}6{{{\rm{Ti}}}}$$. Phys. Rev. B 97, 100505 (2018).10.1103/PhysRevB.97.100505 ↗
45. Singh, D., Sajilesh, K. P., Marik, S., Hillier, A. D. & Singh, R. P. Superconducting and normal state properties of the noncentrosymmetric superconductor NbOs2 investigated by muon spin relaxation and rotation. Phys. Rev. B 99, 014516 (2019).10.1103/PhysRevB.99.014516 ↗
46. Leggett, A. J. A theoretical description of the new phases of liquid 3He. Rev. Mod. Phys. 47, 331–414 (1975).10.1103/RevModPhys.47.331 ↗
47. Aoki, Y. et al. Thermodynamical study on the heavy-fermion superconductor PrOs4Sb12: evidence for field-induced phase transition. J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 71, 2098–2101 (2002).10.1143/JPSJ.71.2098 ↗
48. Pathak, A. K., Paudyal, D., Mudryk, Y., Gschneidner, K. A. & Pecharsky, V. K. Anomalous Schottky specific heat and structural distortion in ferromagnetic PrAl2. Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 186405 (2013).10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.186405 ↗
49. Hargreaves, T. et al. Low-temperature specific heat of the electron-doped superconductor Pr2-xCexCuO4-δ. Phys. C 303, 33–40 (1998).10.1016/S0921-4534(98)00211-1 ↗
50. Kopnin, N. B. & Volovik, G. E. Flux flow in d-wave superconductors: low temperature universality and scaling. Phys. Rev. Lett. 79, 1377–1380 (1997).10.1103/PhysRevLett.79.1377 ↗
51. Hardy, F. et al. Transverse and longitudinal magnetic-field responses in the Ising ferromagnets URhGe, UCoGe, and UGe2. Phys. Rev. B 83, 195107 (2011).10.1103/PhysRevB.83.195107 ↗
52. Anand, V. K. et al. Specific heat and μSR study on the noncentrosymmetric superconductor LaRhSi3. Phys. Rev. B 83, 064522 (2011).10.1103/PhysRevB.83.064522 ↗
53. Jiao, L. et al. Chiral superconductivity in heavy-fermion metal UTe2. Nature 579, 523–527 (2020).10.1038/s41586-020-2122-2 ↗
54. Khasanov, R. et al. Muon-spin-rotation measurements of the penetration depth in Li2Pd3B. Phys. Rev. B 73, 214528 (2006).10.1103/PhysRevB.73.214528 ↗
55. Brandt, E. H. Flux distribution and penetration depth measured by muon spin rotation in high-Tc superconductors. Phys. Rev. B 37, 2349–2352 (1988).10.1103/PhysRevB.37.2349 ↗
56. MacLaughlin, D. E. et al. Muon spin relaxation and isotropic pairing in superconducting PrOs4Sb12. Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 157001 (2002).10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.157001 ↗
57. Maisuradze, A. et al. Superfluid density and energy gap function of superconducting PrPt4Ge12. Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 147002 (2009).10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.147002 ↗
58. Khasanov, R. et al. Evidence of nodeless superconductivity in FeSe0.85 from a muon-spin-rotation study of the in-plane magnetic penetration depth. Phys. Rev. B 78, 220510 (2008).10.1103/PhysRevB.78.220510 ↗
59. Shan, L. et al. Distinct pairing symmetries in Nd1.85Ce0.15CuO4−y and La1.89Sr0.11CuO4 single crystals: evidence from comparative tunneling measurements. Phys. Rev. B 72, 144506 (2005).10.1103/PhysRevB.72.144506 ↗
60. Biswas, P. K. et al. Chiral singlet superconductivity in the weakly correlated metal LaPt3P. Nat. Commun. 12, 2504 (2021).10.1038/s41467-021-22807-8 ↗
61. Iguchi, Y. et al. Microscopic imaging homogeneous and single phase superfluid density in UTe2. Phys. Rev. Lett. 130, 196003 (2023).10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.196003 ↗
62. Garaud, J., Babaev, E., Bojesen, T. A. & Sudbø, A. Lattices of double-quanta vortices and chirality inversion in px + ipy superconductors. Phys. Rev. B 94, 104509 (2016).10.1103/PhysRevB.94.104509 ↗
63. Aoki, Y. et al. Time-reversal symmetry-breaking superconductivity in heavy-fermion PrOs4Sb12 detected by muon-spin relaxation. Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 067003 (2003).10.1103/PhysRevLett.91.067003 ↗
64. Luke, G. M. et al. Muon spin relaxation in UPt3. Phys. Rev. Lett. 71, 1466–1469 (1993).10.1103/PhysRevLett.71.1466 ↗
65. Hillier, A. D., Quintanilla, J. & Cywinski, R. Evidence for time-reversal symmetry breaking in the noncentrosymmetric superconductor LaNiC2. Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 117007 (2009).10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.117007 ↗
66. Biswas, P. K. et al. Evidence for superconductivity with broken time-reversal symmetry in locally noncentrosymmetric SrPtAs. Phys. Rev. B 87, 180503 (2013).10.1103/PhysRevB.87.180503 ↗
67. Hillier, A. D. et al. Muon spin spectroscopy. Nat. Rev. Methods Prim. 2, 4 (2022).10.1038/s43586-021-00089-0 ↗
68. Hayano, R. S. et al. Zero-and low-field spin relaxation studied by positive muons. Phys. Rev. B 20, 850–859 (1979).10.1103/PhysRevB.20.850 ↗
69. Bernal, O. O. et al. Charge-stripe order, antiferromagnetism, and spin dynamics in the cuprate-analog nickelate La4Ni3O8. Phys. Rev. B 100, 125142 (2019).10.1103/PhysRevB.100.125142 ↗
70. Tan, C. et al. Slow magnetic fluctuations and critical slowing down in Sr2Ir1−xRhxO4. Phys. Rev. B 101, 195108 (2020).10.1103/PhysRevB.101.195108 ↗
71. MacLaughlin, D. E. et al. Weak quasistatic magnetism in the frustrated kondo lattice Pr2Ir2O7. Phys. B: Condens. Matter 404, 667–670 (2009).10.1016/j.physb.2008.11.167 ↗
72. Sigrist, M. & Ueda, K. Phenomenological theory of unconventional superconductivity. Rev. Mod. Phys. 63, 239–311 (1991).10.1103/RevModPhys.63.239 ↗
73. Zhang, J. et al. Broken time-reversal symmetry in superconducting Pr1−xLaxPt4Ge12. Phys. Rev. B 100, 024508 (2019).10.1103/PhysRevB.100.024508 ↗
74. Gross, F. et al. Anomalous temperature dependence of the magnetic field penetration depth in superconducting UBe13. Z. Phys. B: Condens. Matter 64, 175–188 (1986).10.1007/BF01303700 ↗
75. Hicks, C. W. et al. Limits on superconductivity-related magnetization in Sr2RuO4 and $${{{{{\rm{PrOs}}}}}4{{{\rm{Sb}}}}}12$$ from scanning squid microscopy. Phys. Rev. B 81, 214501 (2010).10.1103/PhysRevB.81.214501 ↗
76. Bhattacharyya, A. et al. Broken time-reversal symmetry probed by muon spin relaxation in the caged type superconductor $${{{{\rm{Lu}}}}}5{{{{\rm{Rh}}}}}6{{{{\rm{Sn}}}}}18$$. Phys. Rev. B 91, 060503 (2015).10.1103/PhysRevB.91.060503 ↗
77. Coombes, J. M. & Carbotte, J. P. Dependence of 2Δ0/kBTc on the shape of electron-phonon spectral density. J. Low. Temp. Phys. 63, 431–446 (1986).10.1007/BF00681491 ↗
78. Blundell, S. J. Spin-polarized muons in condensed matter physics. Contemp. Phys. 40, 175–192 (1999).10.1080/001075199181521 ↗
79. Keren, A., Mendels, P., Campbell, I. A. & Lord, J. Probing the spin-spin dynamical autocorrelation function in a spin glass above Tg via muon spin relaxation. Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 1386 (1996).10.1103/PhysRevLett.77.1386 ↗
80. Aoki, D. et al. First observation of the de Haas-van Alphen effect and fermi surfaces in the unconventional superconductor UTe2. J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 91, 083704 (2022).10.7566/JPSJ.91.083704 ↗