Intrinsic nature of spontaneous magnetic fields in superconductors with time-reversal symmetry breaking

Abstract

We present a systematic investigation of muon-stopping states in superconductors that reportedly exhibit spontaneous magnetic fields below their transition temperatures due to time-reversal symmetry breaking. These materials include elemental rhenium, several intermetallic systems and Sr${}_2$RuO${}_4$. We demonstrate that the presence of the muon leads to only a limited and relatively localized perturbation to the local crystal structure, while any small changes to the electronic structure occur several electron volts below the Fermi energy leading to only minimal changes in the charge density on ions close to the muon. Our results imply that the muon-induced perturbation alone is unlikely to lead to the observed spontaneous fields in these materials, whose origin is more likely intrinsic to the time-reversal symmetry broken superconducting state.

Main text: 6 pages, 3 figures. Supplemental Material: 13 pages, 16 figures

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• In-plane magnetic penetration depth in Sr${}_2$RuO${}_4$: muon-spin rotation/relaxation study
• $\mu$SR measurements on Sr${}_2$RuO${}_4$ under $⟨110⟩$ uniaxial stress
• Nodeless time-reversal symmetry breaking in the centrosymmetric superconductor Sc${}_5$Co${}_4$Si${}_{10}$ probed by muon-spin spectroscopy
• Absence of strong magnetic fluctuations or interactions in the normal state of LaNiGa${}_2$
• Automated computational workflows for muon spin spectroscopy
• Nonlocal electrodynamics and the penetration depth of superconducting Sr${}_2$RuO${}_4$
• Muon spin rotation and relaxation study on topological noncentrosymmetric superconductor PbTaSe${}_2$
• Muon Knight shift as a precise probe of the superconducting symmetry of Sr${}_2$RuO${}_4$