Heavy fermion superconductors are a type of unconventional superconductor.
The first heavy fermion superconductor, CeCu2Si2, was discovered by Frank Steglich in 1978. [1]
Since then over 30 heavy fermion superconductors were found (in materials based on Ce, U), with a critical temperature up to 2.3 K (in CeCoIn5). [2]
Material | TC (K) | comments | original reference |
---|---|---|---|
CeCu2Si2 | 0.7 | first unconventional superconductor | [1] |
CeCoIn5 | 2.3 | highest TC of all Ce-based heavy fermions | [2] |
CePt3Si | 0.75 | first heavy-fermion superconductor with non-centrosymmetric crystal structure | [3] |
CeIn3 | 0.2 | superconducting only at high pressures | [4] |
UBe13 | 0.85 | p-wave superconductor | [5] |
UPt3 | 0.48 | several distinct superconducting phases | [6] |
URu2Si2 | 1.3 | mysterious 'hidden-order phase' below 17 K | [7] |
UPd2Al3 | 2.0 | antiferromagnetic below 14 K | [8] |
UNi2Al3 | 1.1 | antiferromagnetic below 5 K | [9] |
Heavy Fermion materials are intermetallic compounds, containing rare earth or actinide elements. The f-electrons of these atoms hybridize with the normal conduction electrons leading to quasiparticles with an enhanced effective mass.[ citation needed ]
From specific heat measurements (ΔC/C(TC) one knows that the Cooper pairs in the superconducting state are also formed by the heavy quasiparticles. [10] In contrast to normal superconductors it cannot be described by BCS-Theory. Due to the large effective mass, [11] the Fermi velocity is reduced and comparable to the inverse Debye frequency. This leads to the failing of the picture of electrons polarizing the lattice as an attractive force.[ citation needed ]
Some heavy fermion superconductors are candidate materials for the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) phase. [12] In particular there has been evidence that CeCoIn5 close to the critical field is in an FFLO state. [13]
Unconventional superconductors are materials that display superconductivity which does not conform to conventional BCS theory or its extensions.
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In condensed matter physics, a pseudogap describes a state where the Fermi surface of a material possesses a partial energy gap, for example, a band structure state where the Fermi surface is gapped only at certain points. The term pseudogap was coined by Nevill Mott in 1968 to indicate a minimum in the density of states at the Fermi level, N(EF), resulting from Coulomb repulsion between electrons in the same atom, a band gap in a disordered material or a combination of these. In the modern context pseudogap is a term from the field of high-temperature superconductivity which refers to an energy range (normally near the Fermi level) which has very few states associated with it. This is very similar to a true 'gap', which is an energy range that contains no allowed states. Such gaps open up, for example, when electrons interact with the lattice. The pseudogap phenomenon is observed in a region of the phase diagram generic to cuprate high-temperature superconductors, existing in underdoped specimens at temperatures above the superconducting transition temperature.
Frank Steglich is a German physicist and the founding director of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids in Dresden, Germany.
In solid-state physics, heavy fermion materials are a specific type of intermetallic compound, containing elements with 4f or 5f electrons in unfilled electron bands. Electrons are one type of fermion, and when they are found in such materials, they are sometimes referred to as heavy electrons. Heavy fermion materials have a low-temperature specific heat whose linear term is up to 1000 times larger than the value expected from the free electron model. The properties of the heavy fermion compounds often derive from the partly filled f-orbitals of rare-earth or actinide ions, which behave like localized magnetic moments. The name "heavy fermion" comes from the fact that the fermion behaves as if it has an effective mass greater than its rest mass. In the case of electrons, below a characteristic temperature (typically 10 K), the conduction electrons in these metallic compounds behave as if they had an effective mass up to 1000 times the free particle mass. This large effective mass is also reflected in a large contribution to the resistivity from electron-electron scattering via the Kadowaki–Woods ratio. Heavy fermion behavior has been found in a broad variety of states including metallic, superconducting, insulating and magnetic states. Characteristic examples are CeCu6, CeAl3, CeCu2Si2, YbAl3, UBe13 and UPt3.
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Piers Coleman is a British-born theoretical physicist, working in the field of theoretical condensed matter physics. Coleman is professor of physics at Rutgers University in New Jersey and at Royal Holloway, University of London.
The Fulde–Ferrell–Larkin–Ovchinnikov (FFLO) phase can arise in a superconductor in large magnetic field. Among its characteristics are Cooper pairs with nonzero total momentum and a spatially non-uniform order parameter, leading to normal conducting areas in the superconductor.
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CeCoIn5 ("Cerium-Cobalt-Indium 5") is a heavy-fermion superconductor with a layered crystal structure, with somewhat two-dimensional electronic transport properties. The critical temperature of 2.3 K is the highest among all of the Ce-based heavy-fermion superconductors.
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