TY - JOUR
T1 - Re1−xMox as an ideal test case of time-reversal symmetry breaking in unconventional superconductors
AU - Shang, Tian
AU - Baines, Christopher
AU - Chang, Lieh Jeng
AU - Gawryluk, Dariusz Jakub
AU - Pomjakushina, Ekaterina
AU - Shi, Ming
AU - Medarde, Marisa
AU - Shiroka, Toni
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank J. Quintanilla, S.K. Ghosh, M. Smidman, and H.Q. Yuan for fruitful discussions. We acknowledge the allocation of beam time at SμS (GPS and LTF spectrometers). This work was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (Grant No. 200021_169455 and 206021_139082) and the Sino-Swiss Science and Technology Cooperation (Grant No. IZLCZ2-170075). L.J.C. thanks MOST Funding of Taiwan for support under Projects No. 104-2112-M-006-010-MY3 and 107-2112-M-006-020.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The Author(s).
PY - 2020/12/1
Y1 - 2020/12/1
N2 - Non-centrosymmetric superconductors (NCSCs) are promising candidates in the search for unconventional and topological superconductivity. The α-Mn-type rhenium-based alloys represent excellent examples of NCSCs, where spontaneous magnetic fields, peculiar to time-reversal symmetry (TRS) breaking, have been shown to develop in the superconducting phase. By converse, TRS is preserved in many other isostructural NCSCs, thus leaving the key question about its origin fully open. Here, we consider the superconducting Re1−xMox (0 ≤ x ≤ 1) family, which comprises both centro- and non-centrosymmetric structures and includes also two extra superconducting phases, β-CrFe and bcc-W. Muon-spin relaxation and rotation (μSR) measurements show a gradual increase of the relaxation rate below Tc, yet its independence of the crystal structure, suggesting that rhenium presence and its amount are among the key factors for the appearance and the extent of TRS breaking in the α-Mn-type NCSCs. The reported results propose Re1−xMox as an ideal test case for investigating TRS breaking in unconventional superconductors.
AB - Non-centrosymmetric superconductors (NCSCs) are promising candidates in the search for unconventional and topological superconductivity. The α-Mn-type rhenium-based alloys represent excellent examples of NCSCs, where spontaneous magnetic fields, peculiar to time-reversal symmetry (TRS) breaking, have been shown to develop in the superconducting phase. By converse, TRS is preserved in many other isostructural NCSCs, thus leaving the key question about its origin fully open. Here, we consider the superconducting Re1−xMox (0 ≤ x ≤ 1) family, which comprises both centro- and non-centrosymmetric structures and includes also two extra superconducting phases, β-CrFe and bcc-W. Muon-spin relaxation and rotation (μSR) measurements show a gradual increase of the relaxation rate below Tc, yet its independence of the crystal structure, suggesting that rhenium presence and its amount are among the key factors for the appearance and the extent of TRS breaking in the α-Mn-type NCSCs. The reported results propose Re1−xMox as an ideal test case for investigating TRS breaking in unconventional superconductors.
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U2 - 10.1038/s41535-020-00279-1
DO - 10.1038/s41535-020-00279-1
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85094650465
SN - 2397-4648
VL - 5
JO - npj Quantum Materials
JF - npj Quantum Materials
IS - 1
M1 - 76
ER -