Systematics of uranium-based superconducting materials.

A large number of uranium-based materials are exotic – they show complex magnetic orders, coexistence of superconductivity with magnetism, enhanced effective electron masses, quantum critical behavior, and topological states. All of these peculiar phenomena are thought to arise from electrons’ dual nature, which is also believed to lie at the origin of high-temperature superconductivity. Among unconventional uranium-based systems, the most intriguing are in fact superconductors – UBe₁₃, URu₂Si₂, and UPt₃ [1-3]. In this talk, I will provide a brief historic overview of superconductivity in uranium-based compounds, and address several pertinent questions [4]: Is superconductivity in uranium-based materials always unconventional? Why are superconducting temperatures in uranium-based compounds so low, compared to other compounds, based on actinide or lanthanide elements? Is there a way to pinpoint crystallographic motifs, which are favorable for the emergence of superconducting state?

[1] J. C. Griveau and É. Colineau, CR Phys. 15, 599 (2014).
[2] B. D. White et al., Phys. C 514, 246 (2015).
[3] H. R. Ott and Z. Fisk, Encycl. Inorg. Bioinorg. Chem. (2018).
[4] E. Svanidze, Handbook Phys. Chem. Rare Earths, in press (2019).