Polar Kerr Effect from Time-Reversal Symmetry Breaking in the Heavy-Fermion Superconductor PrOs_{4}Sb_{12}

E M Levenson-Falk; E R Schemm; Y Aoki; M B Maple; A Kapitulnik

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.187004

Polar Kerr Effect from Time-Reversal Symmetry Breaking in the Heavy-Fermion Superconductor PrOs_{4}Sb_{12}

Phys Rev Lett. 2018 May 4;120(18):187004. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.187004.

Authors

E M Levenson-Falk^{1

2

3}, E R Schemm², Y Aoki⁴, M B Maple⁵, A Kapitulnik^{1

6

7}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Applied Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
² Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
³ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA.
⁴ Department of Physics, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo 192-0397, Japan.
⁵ Department of Physics and Center for Advanced Nanoscience, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA.
⁶ Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
⁷ Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA.

PMID: 29775372
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.187004

Abstract

We present polar Kerr effect measurements of the filled skutterudite superconductor PrOs_{4}Sb_{12}. Simultaneous ac susceptibility measurements allow us to observe the superconducting transition under the influence of heating from the optical beam. A nonzero Kerr angle θ_{K} develops below the superconducting transition, saturating at ∼300 nrad at low temperatures. This result is repeated across several measurements of multiple samples. By extrapolating the measured θ_{K}(T) to zero optical power, we are able to show that the Kerr angle onset temperature in one set of measurements is consistent with the transition to the B phase at T_{C2}. We discuss the possible explanations for this result and its impact on the understanding of multiphase and inhomogeneous superconductivity in PrOs_{4}Sb_{12}.