Magnetic-field sensitive charge density wave orders in the superconducting phase of UTe2

Abstract

The intense interest in triplet superconductivity partly stems from theoretical predictions of exotic excitations such as non-abelian Majorana modes, chiral supercurrents, and half-quantum vortices. However, fundamentally new, and unexpected states may emerge when triplet superconductivity appears in a strongly correlated system. In this work we use scanning tunneling microscopy to reveal an unusual charge density wave (CDW) order in the heavy fermion triplet superconductor, UTe2. Our high-resolution maps reveal a multi-component incommensurate CDW whose intensity get weaker with increasing field, eventually disappearing at the superconducting critical field, Hc2. To explain the origin and phenomenology of this unusual CDW, we construct a Ginzburg-Landau theory for a uniform triplet superconductor coexisting with three triplet pair density wave (PDW) states. This theory gives rise to daughter CDWs which would be sensitive to magnetic field due to their origin in a triplet PDW state, and naturally explains our data. Our discovery of a CDW sensitive to magnetic fields and strongly intertwined with superconductivity, provides important new information for understanding the order parameter of UTe2 and uncovers the possible existence of a new kind of triplet PDW order which has not been previously explored.

12 pages, 4 figures, Supplementary information

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• Visualizing symmetry-breaking electronic orders in epitaxial Kagome magnet FeSn films
• Pair Wavefunction Symmetry in UTe2 from Zero-Energy Surface State Visualization
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• Observation of superconducting pair density modulation within lattice unit cell
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• A quantum critical line bounds the high field metamagnetic transition surface in UTe${}_2$
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• Pair-density-wave superconductivity: a microscopic model on 2D honeycomb lattice
• Origin of the non-Fermi-liquid behavior in CeRh2As2
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• Absence of a bulk charge density wave signature in x-ray measurements of UTe${}_2$
• Intertwined Orders and the Physics of High Temperature Superconductors
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• Observation of Persistent Zero Modes and Superconducting Vortex Doublets in UTe${}_2$
• Evidence for reduced periodic lattice distortion within the Sb-terminated surface layer of the kagome metal CsV${}_3$Sb${}_5$
• Imaging half-unit-cell Cooper-pair density waves in monolayer 1T${}^{\prime }$-MoTe${}_2$
• Optically active Higgs and Leggett modes in multiband pair-density-wave superconductors with Lifshitz invariant
• Quasiparticle interference and spectral function of the UTe${}_2$ superconductive surface band
• Discovery of smectic charge and pair-density-wave orders in topological monolayer 1T${}^{\prime }$-MoTe${}_2$
• Electronic structure of topological defects in the pair density wave superconductor
• Enhanced pair-density-wave vertices in a bilayer Hubbard model at half-filling
• Vestigial $d$-wave charge-$4e$ Superconductivity from Bidirectional Pair Density Waves
• Two-dimensional flat band on the (011) surface of UTe${}_2$: Implication for STM measurements with a superconducting tip
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• Finite-momentum and field-induced pairings in orbital-singlet spin-triplet superconductors
• The feedback driven atomic scale Josephson microscope
• Uncovering hidden Fermi surface instabilities through visualizing unconventional quasiparticle interference in CeTe3
• Pair-density-wave phase of strongly interacting electrons on the triangular lattice: A variational Monte Carlo study
• Visualizing the Odd-parity Superconducting Order Parameter and its Quasiparticle Surface Band in UTe2
• Versatile multi-q antiferromagnetic charge order in correlated vdW metals
• A unified theoretical framework for Kondo superconductors: Periodic Anderson impurities with attractive pairing and Rashba spin-orbit coupling
• Supercurrent effect in a charge density wave intertwined superconductor
• Dual role of stripe phase on superconducting correlation in a bilayer square lattice
• Spin-triplet pair density wave superconductors
• Spin-Valley Locking and Pure Spin-Triplet Superconductivity in Noncollinear Antiferromagnets Proximitized to Conventional Superconductors
• Quasiparticle Interference of Spin-Triplet Superconductors: Application to UTe${}_2$
• Visualizing Pair-breaking Scattering Interference in Bulk FeSe
• Evidence of intertwined pair density and charge density wave orders in UTe2