Competing magnetic orders in the superconducting state of heavy-fermion CeRhIn5

Applied pressure drives the heavy-fermion antiferromagnet CeRhIn5 toward a quantum critical point that becomes hidden by a dome of unconventional superconductivity. Magnetic fields suppress this superconducting dome, unveiling the quantum phase transition of local character. Here, we show that [Form...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2017-05, Vol.114 (21), p.5384-5388
Main Authors: Rosa, P F S, Kang, J, Luo, Yongkang, Wakeham, N, Bauer, E D, Ronning, F, Fisk, Z, Fernandes, R M, Thompson, J D
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
heavy fermions
magnetism
Material Science
MATERIALS SCIENCE
Physical Sciences
superconductivity
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Applied pressure drives the heavy-fermion antiferromagnet CeRhIn5 toward a quantum critical point that becomes hidden by a dome of unconventional superconductivity. Magnetic fields suppress this superconducting dome, unveiling the quantum phase transition of local character. Here, we show that [Formula: see text] magnetic substitution at the Ce site in CeRhIn5, either by Nd or Gd, induces a zero-field magnetic instability inside the superconducting state. This magnetic state not only should have a different ordering vector than the high-field local-moment magnetic state, but it also competes with the latter, suggesting that a spin-density-wave phase is stabilized in zero field by Nd and Gd impurities, similarly to the case of Ce0.95Nd0.05CoIn5 Supported by model calculations, we attribute this spin-density wave instability to a magnetic-impurity-driven condensation of the spin excitons that form inside the unconventional superconducting state.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.1703016114