Anomalous normal fluid response in a chiral superconductor UTe2

• Published in: Nature communications 2021-05, Vol.12 (1)
• Main Authors: Bae, Seokjin, Kim, Hyunsoo, Eo, Yun Suk, Ran, Sheng, Liu, I-lin, Fuhrman, Wesley T., Paglione, Johnpierre, Butch, Nicholas P., Anlage, Steven M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY; Magnetic properties and materials; Magnetic properties and materials Superconducting properties and materials; Superconducting properties and materials
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723

AbstractChiral superconductors have been proposed as one pathway to realize Majorana normal fluid at its boundary. However, the long-sought 2D and 3D chiral superconductors with edge and surface Majorana normal fluid are yet to be conclusively found. Here, we report evidence for a chiral spin-triplet pairing state of UTe2 with surface normal fluid response. The microwave surface impedance of the UTe2 crystal was measured and converted to complex conductivity, which is sensitive to both normal and superfluid responses. The anomalous residual normal fluid conductivity supports the presence of a significant normal fluid response. The superfluid conductivity follows the temperature behavior predicted for an axial spin-triplet state, which is further narrowed down to a chiral spin-triplet state with evidence of broken time-reversal symmetry. Further analysis excludes trivial origins for the observed normal fluid response. Our findings suggest that UTe2 can be a new platform to study exotic topological excitations in higher dimension.