2020/08/10 by Tatsuya Shishidou, H. G. Suh, Han Gyeol Suh +5 · 1 citation
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Condensed matter physics #Iron-based superconductors research #Physics #Rare-earth and actinide compounds #Superconductivity #Topological Materials and Phenomena #cond-mat.str-el #cond-mat.supr-con
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.103.104504
published as Phys. Rev. B 103, 104504 (2021) · 6 pages, 3 figures
arxiv created 2020/08/10 · openalex created_date 2020/08/13 · openalex publication_date 2021/03/05 · arxiv updated 2021/03/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
UTe2 is a likely spin-triplet superconductor that also exhibits evidence for chiral Majorana edge states. A characteristic structural feature of UTe2 is inversion-symmetry related pairs of U atoms, forming rungs of ladders. Here we show how each rung's two sublattice degrees of freedom play a key role in understanding the electronic structure and the origin of superconductivity. In particular, DFT+U calculations generically reveal a topological band near the chemical potential originating from a band inversion associated with 5f electrons residing on these rungs, necessitating a microscopic description that includes these rung degrees of freedom. Furthermore, we show that a previously identified strong ferromagnetic interaction within a U-U rung leads to a pseudospin-triplet superconducting state that accounts for a nonzero polar Kerr angle, the observed magnetic field-temperature phase diagrams, and nodal Weyl fermions. Our analysis may also be relevant for other U-based superconductors.