Quantum critical scaling and superconductivity in heavy electron materials

Abstract

We use the two fluid model to determine the conditions under which the nuclear spin-lattice lattice relaxation rate, $T_1$, of candidate heavy quantum critical superconductors can exhibit scaling behavior and find that it can occur if and only if their "hidden" quantum critical spin fluctuations give rise to a temperature-independent intrinsic heavy electron spin-lattice relaxation rate. The resulting scaling of $T_1$ with the strength of the heavy electron component and the coherence temperature, $T^{\ast }$, provides a simple test for their presence at pressures at which the superconducting transition temperature, $T_c$, is maximum and is proportional to $T^{\ast }$. These findings support the previously noted partial scaling of the spin-lattice relaxation rate with $T_c$ in a number of important heavy electron materials and provide additional evidence that in these materials their optimal superconductivity originates in the quantum critical spin fluctuations associated with a nearby phase transition from partially localized to fully itinerant quasiparticles.

6 pages, 4 figures, 1 table

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Cited by in corpus (9)

• Two-Fluid Model for Heavy Electron Physics
• Gap symmetry of the heavy fermion superconductor CeCu${}_2$Si${}_2$ at ambient pressure
• Quantum critical scaling and fluctuations in Kondo lattice materials
• The Emergence of Superconductivity in Heavy Electron Materials
• Coherence Temperature in the Diluted Periodic Anderson Model
• Nearly-degenerate $p_x+i{p}_y$ and $d_{x^2-y^2}$ pairing symmetry in the heavy fermion superconductor YbRh${}_2$Si${}_2$
• An emerging global picture of heavy fermion physics
• NMR Investigation of antiferromagnetism and coherence in URu${}_2$Si${}_{2-x}$P${}_x$
• Phase evolution of Ce-based heavy-fermion superconductors under compression: a combined first-principle and effective-model study