Effects of the order parameter anisotropy on the vortex lattice in UPt3

Abstract

We have used small-angle neutron scattering to determine the vortex lattice phase diagram in the topological superconductor UPt3 for the applied magnetic field along the crystalline c-axis. A triangular vortex lattice is observed throughout the superconducting state, but with an orientation relative to the hexagonal basal place that changes with field and temperature. At low temperature, in the chiral B phase, the vortex lattice undergoes a non-monotonic rotation with increasing magnetic field. The rotation amplitude decreases with increasing temperature and vanishes before reaching the A phase. Within the A phase an abrupt +/-15 degree vortex lattice rotation was previously reported by Huxley et al., Nature 406, 160-164 (2000). The complex phase diagram may be understood from competing effects of the superconducting order parameter, the symmetry breaking field, and the Fermi surface anisotropy. The low-temperature rotated phase, centered around 0.8 T, reported by Avers et al., Nature Physics 16, 531-535 (2020), can be attributed directly to the symmetry breaking field.

To appear in Frontiers of Electronic Materials, Research topic on "New Heavy Fermion Superconductors"

References in corpus (5)

• The Order Parameter for the Superconducting Phases of UPt${}_3$
• Observation of broken time-reversal symmetry in the heavy fermion superconductor UPt${}_3$
• Morphology of the Superconducting Vortex Lattice in Ultra-Pure Niobium
• Metastable Vortex Lattice Phases in Superconducting MgB2
• Magnetization in the Superconducting State of UPt${}_3$ from Polarized Neutron Diffraction