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Extreme magnetic field-boosted superconductivity

Nature Physics volume 15, pages 1250–1254 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

Applied magnetic fields underlie exotic quantum states, such as the fractional quantum Hall effect1 and Bose–Einstein condensation of spin excitations2. Superconductivity, however, is inherently antagonistic towards magnetic fields. Only in rare cases3,4,5 can these effects be mitigated over limited fields, leading to re-entrant superconductivity. Here, we report the coexistence of multiple high-field re-entrant superconducting phases in the spin-triplet superconductor UTe2 (ref. 6). We observe superconductivity in the highest magnetic field range identified for any re-entrant superconductor, beyond 65 T. Although the stability of superconductivity in these high magnetic fields challenges current theoretical models, these extreme properties seem to reflect a new kind of exotic superconductivity rooted in magnetic fluctuations7 and boosted by a quantum dimensional crossover8.

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Fig. 1: Magnetic field-induced superconducting and polarized phases of UTe2.
Fig. 2: Re-entrance of superconductivity in UTe2.
Fig. 3: Angle dependence of the field-induced superconducting and polarized phases of UTe2.
Fig. 4: Temperature dependence of SCFP in UTe2.

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Data availability

The data represented in Figs. 1–4 are available as source data in Supplementary Data 1–4. All other data that support the plots within this paper and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge helpful discussions with A. Lebed and V. Yakovenko. W.T.F. is grateful for the support of the Schmidt Science Fellows programme in partnership with the Rhodes Trust. Research at the University of Maryland was supported by the US National Science Foundation Division of Materials Research Award No. DMR-1610349 (support for sample preparation), the US Department of Energy (DOE) Award No. DE-SC-0019154 (support for experimental measurements) and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s EPiQS Initiative through Grant No. GBMF4419 (support for materials synthesis). Work performed at NHMFL was supported by NSF Cooperative Agreement No. DMR-1644779, the State of Florida, DOE and through the DOE Basic Energy Sciences Field Work Project Science in 100 T. A portion of this work was supported by the NHMFL User Collaboration Grants Program. Identification of commercial equipment does not imply recommendation or endorsement by NIST.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Nanophysics and Advanced Materials, Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Sheng Ran, I-Lin Liu, Yun Suk Eo, Daniel J. Campbell, Paul M. Neves, Wesley T. Fuhrman, Shanta R. Saha, Christopher Eckberg, Hyunsoo Kim, Johnpierre Paglione & Nicholas P. Butch

  2. NIST Center for Neutron Research, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, USA

    Sheng Ran, I-Lin Liu, Shanta R. Saha, Johnpierre Paglione & Nicholas P. Butch

  3. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Sheng Ran & I-Lin Liu

  4. National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA

    David Graf

  5. National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA

    Fedor Balakirev & John Singleton

  6. Department of Physics, The Clarendon Laboratory, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    John Singleton

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Contributions

N.P.B. directed the project. S.R., W.T.F. and S.R.S. synthesized the single crystalline samples. S.R., I.-L.L., J.S. and F.B. performed the magnetoresistance, PDO and magnetization measurements in the pulsed field. Y.S.E., D.J.C., P.M.N. and D.G. performed the magnetoresistance measurements in the d.c. field. C.E. and H.K. performed magnetoresistance measurements in low magnetic fields. S.R. and N.P.B. wrote the manuscript with contributions from all authors.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Sheng Ran or Nicholas P. Butch.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–5.

Supplementary Data 1

Source data for Fig. 1.

Supplementary Data 2

Source data for Fig. 2.

Supplementary Data 3

Source data for Fig. 3.

Supplementary Data 4

Source data for Fig. 4.

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Ran, S., Liu, IL., Eo, Y.S. et al. Extreme magnetic field-boosted superconductivity. Nat. Phys. 15, 1250–1254 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-019-0670-x

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