In research published recently in the scientific journal Nature, Los Alamos scientists Tuson Park, Joe D. Thompson, and their colleagues describe the discovery of hidden magnetism in the CeRhIn5 compound. In studying the compound, researchers found that a purely unconventional superconducting phase is separated from a phase of coexisting magnetism and unconventional superconductivity, with the boundary between these two phases controlled by the laws of quantum physics.
Unconventional superconductors are materials that exhibit superconductivity, a complete absence of electrical resistance under cold temperatures, but use exotic mechanisms. Conventional wisdom has long held that the magnetism is excluded as materials change phases, but the researchers now show that it is merely hidden by unconventional superconductivity and can be made to reappear in the presence of an applied magnetic field.
According to Thompson, "this discovery provides an exciting opportunity to better understand how magnetism and unconventional superconductivity are related in more-complex materials and may reveal more about the technologically important field of high temperature superconductors."
At low temperatures, electrons in a metal can pair with each other to create superconductivity, align in a magnetically ordered state, or do neither. Until recently, these mutually exclusive options for electrons were the norm, but the discovery of complex electronic materials like CeRhIn5, which can sustain more exotic forms of superconductivity, now shows that electrons can participate simultaneously in magnetism and superconductivity.
In addition to Park and Thompson, the research team included Filip Ronning, Roman Movshovich, and John Sarrao from Los Alamos, along with Huiqiu Yuan and Myron Salamon, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
The work was supported by the United States Department of Energy's Office of Basic Energy Sciences and the National Science Foundation.
Los Alamos National Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security, is operated by Los Alamos National Security, LLC, a team composed of Bechtel National, the University of California, The Babcock & Wilcox Company, and Washington Group International for the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.
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