Superconductivity with broken time-reversal symmetry inside a superconducting s-wave state
/ Authors
V. Grinenko, R. Sarkar, K. Kihou, Chul-Ho Lee, I. Morozov, S. Aswartham, B. Büchner, P. Chekhonin, W. Skrotzki, K. Nenkov
and 11 more authors
R. Hühne, K. Nielsch, S. Drechsler, V. Vadimov, M. Silaev, P. Volkov, P. Volkov, I. Eremin, I. Eremin, H. Luetkens, H. Klauss
/ Abstract
In general, magnetism and superconductivity are antagonistic to each other. However, there are several families of superconductors in which superconductivity coexists with magnetism, and a few examples are known where the superconductivity itself induces spontaneous magnetism. The best known of these compounds are Sr2RuO4 and some non-centrosymmetric superconductors. Here, we report the finding of a narrow dome of an s+is′\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$s+is^{\prime}$$\end{document} superconducting phase with apparent broken time-reversal symmetry (BTRS) inside the broad s-wave superconducting region of the centrosymmetric multiband superconductor Ba1 − xKxFe2As2 (0.7 ≲ x ≲ 0.85). We observe spontaneous magnetic fields inside this dome using the muon spin relaxation (μSR) technique. Furthermore, our detailed specific heat study reveals that the BTRS dome appears very close to a change in the topology of the Fermi surface. With this, we experimentally demonstrate the likely emergence of a novel quantum state due to topological changes of the electronic system. An exotic s + is multiband superconducting state manifests in a doped pnictide superconductor when a second band moves below the Fermi surface. This creates an internal magnetic field, breaking time-reversal symmetry.
Journal: Nature Physics