Inhomogeneous high temperature melting and decoupling of charge density waves in spin-triplet superconductor UTe2

Alexander LaFleur, Hong Li, Corey E. Frank, Muxian Xu, Siyu Cheng, Ziqiang Wang, Nicholas P. Butch and Ilija Zeljkovic ()
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Alexander LaFleur: Boston College
Hong Li: Boston College
Corey E. Frank: National Institute of Standards and Technology
Muxian Xu: Boston College
Siyu Cheng: Boston College
Ziqiang Wang: Boston College
Nicholas P. Butch: National Institute of Standards and Technology
Ilija Zeljkovic: Boston College

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Charge, spin and Cooper-pair density waves have now been widely detected in exotic superconductors. Understanding how these density waves emerge — and become suppressed by external parameters — is a key research direction in condensed matter physics. Here we study the temperature and magnetic-field evolution of charge density waves in the rare spin-triplet superconductor candidate UTe2 using scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy. We reveal that charge modulations composed of three different wave vectors gradually weaken in a spatially inhomogeneous manner, while persisting to surprisingly high temperatures of 10–12 K. We also reveal an unexpected decoupling of the three-component charge density wave state. Our observations match closely to the temperature scale potentially related to short-range magnetic correlations, providing a possible connection between density waves observed by surface probes and intrinsic bulk features. Importantly, charge density wave modulations become suppressed with magnetic field both below and above superconducting Tc in a comparable manner. Our work points towards an intimate connection between hidden magnetic correlations and the origin of the unusual charge density waves in UTe2.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-48844-7

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