Thermodynamic and electrical transport properties of UTe${}_2$ under uniaxial stress

Abstract

Despite intense experimental efforts, the nature of the unconventional superconducting order parameter of UTe${}_2$ remains elusive. This puzzle stems from different reported numbers of superconducting transitions at ambient pressure, as well as a complex pressure-temperature phase diagram. To bring new insights into the superconducting properties of UTe${}_2$, we measured the heat capacity and electrical resistivity of single crystals under compressive uniaxial stress $\sigma$ applied along different crystallographic directions. We find that the critical temperature $T_{\mathrm{c}}$ of the single observed bulk superconducting transition decreases with $\sigma$ along $[100]$ and $[110]$ but increases with $\sigma$ along $[001]$. Aside from its effect on $T_{\mathrm{c}}$, we notice that $c$-axis stress leads to a significant piezoresistivity, which we associate with the shift of the zero-pressure resistivity peak at $T^{\star }\approx 15\mathrm{K}$ to lower temperatures under stress. Finally, we show that an in-plane shear stress ${\sigma }_{xy}$ does not induce any observable splitting of the superconducting transition over a stress range of ${\sigma }_{xy}\approx 0.17\mathrm{GPa}$. This result suggests that the superconducting order parameter of UTe${}_2$ may be single-component at ambient pressure.

References in corpus (14)

• Unconventional Superconductivity in UTe2
• Multiple Superconducting Phases and Unusual Enhancement of the Upper Critical Field in UTe2
• Low energy band structure and symmetries of UTe2 from angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy
• Single-component superconducting state in UTe2 at 2 K
• Periodic Anderson model for magnetism and superconductivity in UTe2
• Topological band and superconductivity in UTe${}_2$
• Spatially inhomogeneous superconductivity in UTe2
• Inhomogeneous time-reversal symmetry breaking in ${\mathrm{Sr}}_2\mathrm{Ru}{\mathrm{O}}_4$
• Comparison of two superconducting phases induced by a magnetic field in UTe2
• $c$-axis transport in UTe${}_2$: Evidence of Three Dimensional Conductivity Component
• Interplay between magnetism and superconductivity in UTe2
• Expansion of the high field-boosted superconductivity in UTe2 under pressure
• Thermodynamic signatures of short-range magnetic correlations in UTe${}_2$
• Heat-capacity measurements under uniaxial pressure using a piezo-driven device

Cited by in corpus (14)

• Single-Component Superconductivity in UTe${}_2$ at Ambient Pressure
• A review of UTe${}_2$ at high magnetic fields
• The fate of time-reversal symmetry breaking in UTe2
• Fully gapped pairing state in spin-triplet superconductor UTe${}_2$
• Heat capacity double transitions in time-reversal symmetry broken superconductors
• Spontaneous time-reversal symmetry breaking by disorder in superconductors
• Thermodynamic transitions and topology of spin-triplet superconductivity: Application to UTe${}_2$
• Resonant Ultrasound Spectroscopy for Irregularly-Shaped Samples and its Application to Uranium Ditelluride
• c axis electrical transport at the metamagnetic transition in the heavy-fermion superconductor UTe2 under pressure
• Microscopic theory of pair density waves in spin-orbit coupled Kondo lattice
• Majorana multipole response with magnetic point group symmetry
• Higher-order topological phases for time-reversal-symmetry breaking superconductivity in UTe${}_2$
• Magnetic edge fields in UTe${}_2$ near zero background fields
• Electronic structure of UTe${}_2$ under pressure