Smectic pair-density-wave order in EuRbFe4As4

He Zhao, Raymond Blackwell, Morgan Thinel, Taketo Handa, Shigeyuki Ishida, Xiaoyang Zhu, Akira Iyo, Hiroshi Eisaki, Abhay N. Pasupathy () and Kazuhiro Fujita ()
Additional contact information
He Zhao: Brookhaven National Laboratory
Raymond Blackwell: Brookhaven National Laboratory
Morgan Thinel: Columbia University
Taketo Handa: Columbia University
Shigeyuki Ishida: National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology
Xiaoyang Zhu: Columbia University
Akira Iyo: National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology
Hiroshi Eisaki: National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology
Abhay N. Pasupathy: Brookhaven National Laboratory
Kazuhiro Fujita: Brookhaven National Laboratory

Nature, 2023, vol. 618, issue 7967, 940-945

Abstract: Abstract The pair density wave (PDW) is a superconducting state in which Cooper pairs carry centre-of-mass momentum in equilibrium, leading to the breaking of translational symmetry1–4. Experimental evidence for such a state exists in high magnetic field5–8 and in some materials that feature density-wave orders that explicitly break translational symmetry9–13. However, evidence for a zero-field PDW state that exists independent of other spatially ordered states has so far been elusive. Here we show that such a state exists in the iron pnictide superconductor EuRbFe4As4, a material that features co-existing superconductivity (superconducting transition temperature (Tc) ≈ 37 kelvin) and magnetism (magnetic transition temperature (Tm) ≈ 15 kelvin)14,15. Using spectroscopic imaging scanning tunnelling microscopy (SI-STM) measurements, we show that the superconducting gap at low temperature has long-range, unidirectional spatial modulations with an incommensurate period of about eight unit cells. Upon increasing the temperature above Tm, the modulated superconductor disappears, but a uniform superconducting gap survives to Tc. When an external magnetic field is applied, gap modulations disappear inside the vortex halo. The SI-STM and bulk measurements show the absence of other density-wave orders, indicating that the PDW state is a primary, zero-field superconducting state in this compound. Both four-fold rotational symmetry and translation symmetry are recovered above Tm, indicating that the PDW is a smectic order.

Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06103-7 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:618:y:2023:i:7967:d:10.1038_s41586-023-06103-7

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06103-7

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().