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The high-field superconducting halo in UTe<sub>2</sub>

ORAL · Invited

Abstract

The likely spin-triplet superconductor UTe2 has a fascinating phase diagram in applied magnetic

fields, including a superconducting phase that only emerges beyond a high-field metamagnetic

transition. This phase was first observed for fields tilted approximately 30° from the b axis in

the bc plane, and it was thought to only emerge for fields near this particular angle. Through

magnetoresistance and proximity detector oscillator measurements across a broad range of

field angles, we have discovered that the phase boundaries of this superconducting state

actually trace out a halo as a function of magnetic field angle. One natural way for a Ginzburg-

Landau model to reproduce the observed non-monotonic upper critical fields is for the Cooper

pairs to have a finite angular momentum that couples to the applied field. This implies a non-

unitary spin-triplet order parameter for the high-field superconducting state.

Publication: This work has been submitted for publication; the preprint is arXiv:2402.18564.

Presenters

  • Sylvia K Lewin

    National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Authors

  • Sylvia K Lewin

    National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

  • Peter A Czajka

    National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

  • Corey E Frank

    New Mexico State University

  • Gicela Guadalupe Saucedo Salas

    University of Maryland, College Park, University of Maryland College Park

  • Andriy H Nevidomskyy

    Rice University

  • Hyeok Yoon

    University of Maryland College Park

  • Yun Suk Eo

    Texas Tech University

  • Johnpierre Paglione

    University of Maryland College Park, Maryland Quantum Materials Center, Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA

  • John Singleton

    Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)

  • Gary Noe

    Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)

  • Nicholas P Butch

    National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)