Incommensurate Spin Fluctuations in a Proposed Spin-Triplet Superconductor
April 5, 2021
Intensity map in the (0,K,L) plane at an energy transfer of 1 meV showing that strong magnetic fluctuations occur at incommensurate wavevectors centered at G ± (0,0.57,0) where G is a reciprocal lattice point.
Scientific Achievement
Magnetism in the spin-triplet superconductor candidate UTe2 is dominated by nearly antiferromagnetic incommensurate spin fluctuations.
Significance and Impact
Spin-triplet superconductivity with the potential to host technologically promising topological states is naively expected to be associated with ferromagnetic fluctuations. This work shows that alternative mechanisms related to the detailed electronic structure can lead to the desired triplet state.
Research Details
- The wavevector and energy dependence of the magnetic excitation spectrum of UTe2 was explored with inelastic neutron scattering.
- Density functional theory and dynamical mean field theory were used to understand the observed fluctuations in terms of the electronic structure.
“Incommensurate Spin Fluctuations in the Spin-Triplet Superconductor Candidate UTe2”
Chunruo Duan, Kalyan Sasmal, M. Brian Maple, Andrey Podlesnyak, Jian-Xin Zhu, Qimiao Si, and Pengcheng Dai
Physical Review Letters, 125, 237003 (2020).
