Nicholas Butch (NIST)

Date: Mon. October 4th, 2021, 12:45 pm-1:45 pm
Location: via Zoom (Meeting ID: 948 4886 6824; Passcode: 616859)
Website: https://sites.google.com/site/npbutch/

Exploring the Limits of Spin Triplet Superconductivity

Nicholas P. Butch

NIST Center for Neutron Research & University of Maryland, College Park

Youtube video

Abstract.– At temperatures below 1.6 K, novel spin-triplet superconductivity is found in the compound UTe₂. This unusual form of superconductivity features intriguing properties, such as multiple order parameters, time-reversal symmetry breaking, and in-gap chiral surface states. Other very unusual features are revealed in high magnetic fields – a very large critical field of 35 T that coincides with a metamagnetic transition and, at even higher fields, reentrant superconductivity that persists over more than 20 T higher. In this talk, I will discuss how the application of pressure strengthens this high-field superconductivity, leading to a zero-resistance state that extends even higher than 35 T, and what new phenomena are found when superconductivity is eventually suppressed.

Host: Xuan Gao