IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v618y2023i7967d10.1038_s41586-023-05919-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Detection of a pair density wave state in UTe2

Author

Listed:
  • Qiangqiang Gu

    (Cornell University)

  • Joseph P. Carroll

    (Cornell University
    University College Cork)

  • Shuqiu Wang

    (Cornell University
    University of Oxford)

  • Sheng Ran

    (Washington University in St. Louis)

  • Christopher Broyles

    (Washington University in St. Louis)

  • Hasan Siddiquee

    (Washington University in St. Louis)

  • Nicholas P. Butch

    (University of Maryland
    NIST Center for Neutron Research)

  • Shanta R. Saha

    (University of Maryland)

  • Johnpierre Paglione

    (University of Maryland
    Canadian Institute for Advanced Research)

  • J. C. Séamus Davis

    (Cornell University
    University College Cork
    University of Oxford
    Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids)

  • Xiaolong Liu

    (Cornell University
    University of Notre Dame
    University of Notre Dame)

Abstract

Spin-triplet topological superconductors should exhibit many unprecedented electronic properties, including fractionalized electronic states relevant to quantum information processing. Although UTe2 may embody such bulk topological superconductivity1–11, its superconductive order parameter Δ(k) remains unknown12. Many diverse forms for Δ(k) are physically possible12 in such heavy fermion materials13. Moreover, intertwined14,15 density waves of spin (SDW), charge (CDW) and pair (PDW) may interpose, with the latter exhibiting spatially modulating14,15 superconductive order parameter Δ(r), electron-pair density16–19 and pairing energy gap17,20–23. Hence, the newly discovered CDW state24 in UTe2 motivates the prospect that a PDW state may exist in this material24,25. To search for it, we visualize the pairing energy gap with μeV-scale energy resolution using superconductive scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) tips26–31. We detect three PDWs, each with peak-to-peak gap modulations of around 10 μeV and at incommensurate wavevectors Pi=1,2,3 that are indistinguishable from the wavevectors Qi=1,2,3 of the prevenient24 CDW. Concurrent visualization of the UTe2 superconductive PDWs and the non-superconductive CDWs shows that every Pi:Qi pair exhibits a relative spatial phase δϕ ≈ π. From these observations, and given UTe2 as a spin-triplet superconductor12, this PDW state should be a spin-triplet PDW24,25. Although such states do exist32 in superfluid 3He, for superconductors, they are unprecedented.

Suggested Citation

  • Qiangqiang Gu & Joseph P. Carroll & Shuqiu Wang & Sheng Ran & Christopher Broyles & Hasan Siddiquee & Nicholas P. Butch & Shanta R. Saha & Johnpierre Paglione & J. C. Séamus Davis & Xiaolong Liu, 2023. "Detection of a pair density wave state in UTe2," Nature, Nature, vol. 618(7967), pages 921-927, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:618:y:2023:i:7967:d:10.1038_s41586-023-05919-7
    DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-05919-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-05919-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41586-023-05919-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alexander LaFleur & Hong Li & Corey E. Frank & Muxian Xu & Siyu Cheng & Ziqiang Wang & Nicholas P. Butch & Ilija Zeljkovic, 2024. "Inhomogeneous high temperature melting and decoupling of charge density waves in spin-triplet superconductor UTe2," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-8, December.
    2. Shinji Kawasaki & Nao Tsukuda & Chengtian Lin & Guo-qing Zheng, 2024. "Strain-induced long-range charge-density wave order in the optimally doped Bi2Sr2−xLaxCuO6 superconductor," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    3. Lu Cao & Yucheng Xue & Yingbo Wang & Fu-Chun Zhang & Jian Kang & Hong-Jun Gao & Jinhai Mao & Yuhang Jiang, 2024. "Directly visualizing nematic superconductivity driven by the pair density wave in NbSe2," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:618:y:2023:i:7967:d:10.1038_s41586-023-05919-7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.