Condensed matter seminar: Two-phase superconductivity in a locally non-centrosymmetric system
Elena Hassinger
MPI for Chemical Physics of Solids and TU Munich
I will report on the discovery of unconventional superconductivity in CeRh2As2. Although it appears at temperatures below 1 K, the superconducting state is extremely robust under the application of magnetic fields and presents a unique phase diagram. Most interestingly, a field-induced phase transition within the superconducting state appears for c-axis fields in magnetisation, susceptibility and magnetostriction indicating two separate superconducting states. The phase diagram can be understood by taking into account the staggered spin-orbit coupling at the Ce position. In that picture, the magnetic field drives a transition from even to odd parity superconductivity. The angle dependence of the critical fields strongly reinforces this interpretation.