1. Parity transition of spin-singlet superconductivity using sub-lattice degrees of freedom
- Author
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Shiki Ogata, Shunsaku Kitagawa, Katsuki Kinjo, Kenji Ishida, Manuel Brando, Elena Hassinger, Christoph Geibel, and Seunghyun Khim
- Subjects
Superconductivity ,Magnetic order ,Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) ,Condensed Matter - Superconductivity ,General Physics and Astronomy ,FOS: Physical sciences ,Spin-singlet pairing ,Heavy-fermion systems ,AC susceptibility measurements ,Nuclear magnetic resonance ,Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics ,Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con) ,Condensed Matter - Strongly Correlated Electrons ,Phase transitions ,Superconducting order parameter ,Superconducting phase transition ,Unconventional superconductors ,Strongly correlated systems ,Nuclear quadrupole resonance - Abstract
Recently, a superconducting (SC) transition from low-field (LF) to high-field (HF) SC states was reported in CeRh$_2$As$_2$, indicating the existence of multiple SC states. It has been theoretically noted that the existence of two Ce sites in the unit cell, the so-called sub-lattice degrees of freedom owing to the local inversion symmetry breaking at the Ce sites, can lead to the appearance of multiple SC phases even under an interaction inducing spin-singlet superconductivity. CeRh$_2$As$_2$ is considered as the first example of multiple SC phases owing to this sub-lattice degree of freedom. However, microscopic information about the SC states has not yet been reported. In this study, we measured the SC spin susceptibility at two crystallographically inequivalent As sites using nuclear magnetic resonance for various magnetic fields. Our experimental results strongly indicate a spin-singlet state in both SC phases. In addition, the antiferromagnetic phase, which appears within the SC phase, only coexists with the LF SC phase; there is no sign of magnetic ordering in the HF SC phase. The present work reveals unique SC properties originating from the locally noncentrosymmetric characteristics., Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, including Supplementary Materials, selected as Editors' Suggestion
- Published
- 2023
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