Competitive coexistence of superconductivity with antiferromagnetism in CeRhIn5

Phys Rev Lett. 2006 Jul 7;97(1):017005. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.017005. Epub 2006 Jul 7.

Abstract

We carried out ac magnetic susceptibility measurements under pressures P on the heavy fermion antiferromagnet CeRhIn5. We report bulk superconductivity (SC) at ambient pressure with a transition temperature Tc approximately or equal to 90 mK. The degraded SC in a powdered or polished sample was restored by annealing, showing that the SC state is sensitive to inhomogeneity. In a coexistence region of the SC with antiferromagnetism (AF), we find that Tc(P)(n)TN(P)(1-n) = const where TN indicates a Néel temperature and n denotes a ratio of electronic specific heat coefficients below and above TN, indicating the competition of the SC and the AF for states at the Fermi surface.