Superconductivity in the vicinity of antiferromagnetic order in CrAs

Abstract

One of the common features of unconventional, magnetically mediated superconductivity as found in the heavy-fermions, high-transition-temperature (high-Tc) cuprates, and iron pnictides superconductors is that the superconductivity emerges in the vicinity of long-range antiferromagnetically ordered state.[1] In addition to doping charge carriers, the application of external physical pressure has been taken as an effective and clean approach to induce the unconventional superconductivity near a magnetic quantum critical point (QCP).[2,3] Superconductivity has been observed in a majority of 3d transition-metal compounds,[4-9] except for the Cr- and Mn-based compounds in the sense that the low-lying states near Fermi level are dominated by their 3d electrons. Herein, we report on the discovery of superconductivity on the verge of antiferromagnetic order in CrAs via the application of external high pressure. Bulk superconductivity with Tc ~ 2 K emerges at the critical pressure Pc ~ 8 kbar, where the first-order antiferromagnetic transition at TN = 265 K under ambient pressure is completely suppressed. Abnormal normal-state properties associated with a magnetic QCP have been observed nearby Pc. The close proximity of superconductivity to an antiferromagnetic order suggests an unconventional pairing mechanism for the superconducting state of CrAs. The present finding opens a new avenue for searching novel superconductors in the Cr and other transitional-metal based systems.

References in corpus (2)

• Fermi-liquid instabilities at magnetic quantum phase transitions
• High-temperature superconductivity in iron-based materials

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Superconductivity in quasi-one-dimensional K${}_2$Cr${}_3$As${}_3$ with significant electron correlations
• Pressure induced superconductivity on the border of magnetic order in MnP
• Magnetism in Quasi-One-Dimensional A${}_2$Cr${}_3$As${}_3$ (A=K,Rb) superconductors
• Pressure induced superconductivity in Bi single crystals
• Detection of an Unconventional Superconducting Phase in the Vicinity of the Strong First-Order Magnetic Transition in CrAs Using ^75As-Nuclear Quadrupole Resonance
• Pressure dependence of the magnetic order in CrAs: a neutron diffraction investigation
• Peculiar properties of Cr${}_3$As${}_3$-chain-based superconductors
• Optical study of phase transitions in single-crystalline RuP
• Superconductivity in MgPtSi: An orthorhombic variant of MgB2
• Anisotropic physical properties and pressure dependent magnetic ordering of CrAuTe${}_4$