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

P. F.S. Rosa, J. Kang, Yongkang Luo, N. Wakeham, E. D. Bauer, F. Ronning, Z. Fisk, R. M. Fernandes, J. D. Thompson

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

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 5% 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-densitywave 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.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)5384-5388
Number of pages5
JournalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume114
Issue number21
DOIs
StatePublished - May 23 2017
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Heavy fermions
  • Magnetism
  • Superconductivity

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

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