Field-induced transition within the superconducting state of CeRh2As2

S Khim; J F Landaeta; J Banda; N Bannor; M Brando; P M R Brydon; D Hafner; R Küchler; R Cardoso-Gil; U Stockert; A P Mackenzie; D F Agterberg; C Geibel; E Hassinger

doi:10.1126/science.abe7518

Field-induced transition within the superconducting state of CeRh₂As₂

Science. 2021 Aug 27;373(6558):1012-1016. doi: 10.1126/science.abe7518.

Authors

S Khim^#^{1

2}, J F Landaeta^#², J Banda^{3

2}, N Bannor², M Brando², P M R Brydon^{4

4}, D Hafner², R Küchler², R Cardoso-Gil^{5

3

2}, U Stockert^{5

2}, A P Mackenzie^{5

4

2

3}, D F Agterberg^{2

5}, C Geibel², E Hassinger^{6

2

7}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI 53201, USA. [email protected] [email protected].
² Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, 01187 Dresden, Germany.
³ Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 9SS, UK.
⁴ Department of Physics and MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, University of Otago, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand.
⁵ Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI 53201, USA.
⁶ Physik Department, Technische Universität München, 85748 Garching, Germany. [email protected] [email protected].
⁷ Physik Department, Technische Universität München, 85748 Garching, Germany.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 34446602
DOI: 10.1126/science.abe7518

Abstract

Materials with multiple superconducting phases are rare. Here, we report the discovery of two-phase unconventional superconductivity in CeRh₂As₂ Using thermodynamic probes, we establish that the superconducting critical field of its high-field phase is as high as 14 tesla, even though the transition temperature is only 0.26 kelvin. Furthermore, a transition between two different superconducting phases is observed in a c axis magnetic field. Local inversion-symmetry breaking at the cerium sites enables Rashba spin-orbit coupling alternating between the cerium sublayers. The staggered Rashba coupling introduces a layer degree of freedom to which the field-induced transition and high critical field seen in experiment are likely related.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't