Kramers' degenerate magnetism and superconductivity

Motivated by the recent discovery of odd-parity multipolar antiferromagnetic order in CeRh$_2$As$_2$, we examine the coexistence of such translation invariant Kramers' degenerate magnetic states and superconductivity. We show that the presence of such magnetic states generically suppresses superconductivity, whether it be spin-singlet or spin-triplet, unless the magnetic state drives a symmetry-required pair density wave (PDW) superconducting order. We apply our results to CeRh$_2$As$_2$, where no pair density wave order appears; and to the loop current order in the cuprates, where such pair density wave superconductivity must appear together with Bogoliubov Fermi surfaces. In the former case, we explain why superconductivity is not suppressed.Comment: 11 pages, 4 Figure

Extremely Large Magnetoresistance in the Nonmagnetic Metal PdCoO2

Extremely large magnetoresistance is realized in the nonmagnetic layered metal PdCoO2. In spite of a highly conducting metallic behavior with a simple quasi-two-dimensional hexagonal Fermi surface, the interlayer resistance reaches up to 35000% for the field along the [1-10] direction. Furthermore, the temperature dependence of the resistance becomes nonmetallic for this field direction, while it remains metallic for fields along the [110] direction. Such severe and anisotropic destruction of the interlayer coherence by a magnetic field on a simple Fermi surface is ascribable to orbital motion of carriers on the Fermi surface driven by the Lorentz force, but seems to have been largely overlooked until now.Comment: Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 056601 (2013

Tuning quantum paramagnetism and d-wave superconductivity in single-layer iron chalcogenides by chemical pressure

By substituting S into single-layer FeSe/SrTiO3, chemical pressure is applied to tune its paramagnetic state that is modeled as an incoherent superposition of spin-spiral states. The resulting electronic bands resemble an ordered checkerboard antiferromagnetic structure, consistent with angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements. Scanning tunneling spectroscopy reveals a gap evolving from U-shaped for FeSe to V-shaped for FeS with decreasing size, attributed to a d-wave superconducting state for which nodes emerge once the gap size is smaller than the effective spin-orbit coupling

Superconductivity of anomalous pseudospin

Spin-orbit coupling driven by broken inversion symmetry ($I$) is known to lead to unusual magnetic response of superconductors, including extremely large critical fields for spin-singlet superconductors. This unusual response is also known to appear in materials that have $I$, provided there is local $I$-breaking: fermions participating in superconductivity reside on crystal sites that lack $I$. Here we show that this unusual response exists even when the crystal sites preserve $I$. Indeed, we argue that the symmetry of Kramers degenerate fermionic pseudospin is more relevant than the local crystal site symmetry. We examine and classify non-symmorphic materials with momentum space spin-textures that exhibit an anomalous pseudospin with different symmetry properties than usual spin-1/2. We find that this anomalous pseudospin does not depend on the existence of local $I$ breaking crystal sites and it optimizes the unusual magnetic response traditionally associated with locally noncentrosymmetric superconductors, dramatically extending the range of relevant materials. We further show this anomalous pseudospin leads to fully gapped `nodal' superconductors and provides additional insight into the breakdown of Blount's theorem for pseudospin triplet superconductors. We apply our results to UPt$_3$, BiS$_2$-based superconductors, Fe-based superconductors, and paramagnetic UCoGe

Band-theoretical prediction of magnetic anisotropy in uranium monochalcogenides

Magnetic anisotropy of uranium monochalcogenides, US, USe and UTe, is studied by means of fully-relativistic spin-polarized band structure calculations within the local spin-density approximation. It is found that the size of the magnetic anisotropy is fairly large (about 10 meV/unit formula), which is comparable with experiment. This strong anisotropy is discussed in view of a pseudo-gap formation, of which crucial ingredients are the exchange splitting of U 5f states and their hybridization with chalcogen p states (f-p hybridization). An anomalous trend in the anisotropy is found in the series (US>>USe<UTe) and interpreted in terms of competition between localization of the U 5f states and the f-p hybridization. It is the spin-orbit interaction on the chalcogen p states that plays an essential role in enlarging the strength of the f-p hybridization in UTe, leading to an anomalous systematic trend in the magnetic anisotropy.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure