2003/10/07 by C. R. Wiebe, Wiebe, C. R., G. M. Luke +7
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #High-pressure geophysics and materials #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Rare-earth and actinide compounds #Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) #cond-mat.str-el
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.cond-mat/0310154
5 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to PRB rapid communications
arxiv created 2003/10/07 · openalex publication_date 2003/10/07 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We have performed neutron scattering experiments on the heavy fermion superconductor URu2Si2 to search for the orbital currents predicted to exist in the ordered phase below \Tn = 17.5 K. Elastic scans in the (H, K, 0) and (H, 0, L) planes revealed no such order parameter at low temperatures. This does not completely rule out orbital current formation, because our detection limit for a ring of scattering is 0.06(1) \ub, which is greater than the size of the predicted moment of ~0.02 \ub. However, on heating, a ring of quasielastic scattering does exist in the (H, K, 0) plane centered at the (1, 0, 0) antiferromagnetic Bragg position and of incommensurate radius τ = 0.4 r.l.u.. The intensity of this ring is thermally activated below \Tn with a characteristic energy scale of Δ = 110 K: the coherence temperature. We believe that these incommensurate spin fluctuations compete with the AF spin fluctuations, and drive the transition to a disordered magnetic state above \Tn. The significance of this higher energy scale with respect to \Tn suggests that these fluctuations also play a crucial role in the formation of the heavy fermion state.