Anisotropic c-f Hybridization in the Ferromagnetic Quantum Critical Metal CeRh_{6}Ge_{4}.

Heavy fermion compounds exhibiting a ferromagnetic quantum critical point have attracted considerable interest. Common to two known cases, i.e., CeRh_{6}Ge_{4} and YbNi_{4}P_{2}, is that the 4f moments reside along chains with a large interchain distance, exhibiting strong magnetic anisotropy that was proposed to be vital for the ferromagnetic quantum criticality. Here, we report an angle-resolved photoemission study on CeRh_{6}Ge_{4} in which we observe sharp momentum-dependent 4f bands and clear bending of the conduction bands near the Fermi level, indicating considerable hybridization between conduction and 4f electrons. The extracted hybridization strength is anisotropic in momentum space and is obviously stronger along the Ce chain direction.The hybridized 4f bands persist up to high temperatures, and the evolution of their intensity shows clear band dependence. Our results provide spectroscopic evidence for anisotropic hybridization between conduction and 4f electrons in CeRh_{6}Ge_{4}, which could be important for understanding the electronic origin of the ferromagnetic quantum criticality.

Localized 4f-electrons in the quantum critical heavy fermion ferromagnet CeRh6Ge4.

Ferromagnetic quantum critical points were predicted to be prohibited in clean itinerant ferromagnetic systems, yet such a phenomenon was recently revealed in CeRh6Ge4, where the Curie temperature can be continuously suppressed to zero under a moderate hydrostatic pressure. Here we report the observation of quantum oscillations in CeRh6Ge4 from measurements using the cantilever and tunnel-diode oscillator methods in fields up to 45 T, clearly demonstrating that the ferromagnetic quantum criticality occurs in a clean system. In order to map the Fermi surface of CeRh6Ge4, we performed angle-dependent measurements of quantum oscillations at ambient pressure, and compared the results to density functional theory calculations. The results are consistent with the Ce 4f electrons remaining localized and not contributing to the Fermi surface, suggesting that localized ferromagnetism is a key factor for the occurrence of a ferromagnetic quantum critical point in CeRh6Ge4.

Recent progress on superconductors with time-reversal symmetry breaking.

Superconductivity and magnetism are adversarial states of matter. The presence of spontaneous magnetic fields inside the superconducting state is, therefore, an intriguing phenomenon prompting extensive experimental and theoretical research. In this review, we discuss recent experimental discoveries of unconventional superconductors which spontaneously break time-reversal symmetry and theoretical efforts in understanding their properties. We discuss the main experimental probes and give an extensive account of theoretical approaches to understand the order parameter symmetries and the corresponding pairing mechanisms, including the importance of multiple bands.

Strange-metal behaviour in a pure ferromagnetic Kondo lattice.

A wide range of metals exhibit anomalous electrical and thermodynamic properties when tuned to a quantum critical point (QCP), although the origins of such strange metals have posed a long-standing mystery. The frequent association of strange metals with unconventional superconductivity and antiferromagnetic QCPs1-4 has led to the belief that they are highly entangled quantum states5. By contrast, ferromagnets are regarded as an unlikely setting for strange metals, because they are weakly entangled and their QCPs are often interrupted by competing phases or first-order phase transitions6-8. Here we provide evidence that the pure ferromagnetic Kondo lattice9,10 CeRh6Ge4 becomes a strange metal at a pressure-induced QCP. Measurements of the specific heat and resistivity under pressure demonstrate that the ferromagnetic transition is continuously suppressed to zero temperature, revealing a strange-metal behaviour around the QCP. We argue that strong magnetic anisotropy has a key role in this process, injecting entanglement in the form of triplet resonating valence bonds into the ordered ferromagnet. We show that a singular transformation in the patterns of the entanglement between local moments and conduction electrons, from triplet resonating valence bonds to Kondo-entangled singlet pairs at the QCP, causes a jump in the Fermi surface volume-a key driver of strange-metallic behaviour. Our results open up a direction for research into ferromagnetic quantum criticality and establish an alternative setting for the strange-metal phenomenon. Most importantly, strange-metal behaviour at a ferromagnetic QCP suggests that quantum entanglement-not the destruction of antiferromagnetism-is the common driver of the varied behaviours of strange metals.

Physical properties and field-induced metamagnetic transitions in UAu0.8Sb2.

We have successfully synthesized single crystals of UAu0.8Sb2 using a flux method and present a comprehensive study of its physical properties by measuring the magnetic susceptibility, electrical resistivity and specific heat. Evidence for at least three magnetic phases is observed in the field-temperature phase diagram of UAu0.8Sb2. In zero field, the system undergoes an antiferromagnetic transition at 71 K, and upon further cooling it passes through another antiferromagnetic phase with a ferromagnetic component, before reaching a ferromagnetic ground state. A complex magnetic field-temperature phase diagram is obtained for fields along the easy c-axis, where the antiferromagnetic order eventually becomes polarized upon applying a magnetic field.

Fully gapped d-wave superconductivity in CeCu2Si2.

The nature of the pairing symmetry of the first heavy fermion superconductor CeCu2Si2 has recently become the subject of controversy. While CeCu2Si2 was generally believed to be a d-wave superconductor, recent low-temperature specific heat measurements showed evidence for fully gapped superconductivity, contrary to the nodal behavior inferred from earlier results. Here, we report London penetration depth measurements, which also reveal fully gapped behavior at very low temperatures. To explain these seemingly conflicting results, we propose a fully gapped [Formula: see text] band-mixing pairing state for CeCu2Si2, which yields very good fits to both the superfluid density and specific heat, as well as accounting for a sign change of the superconducting order parameter, as previously concluded from inelastic neutron scattering results.

Evidence for nodal superconductivity in a layered compound Ta4Pd3Te16.

We report an investigation of the London penetration depth [Formula: see text] on single crystals of the layered superconductor Ta4Pd3Te16, where the crystal structure has quasi-one-dimensional characteristics. A linear temperature dependence of [Formula: see text] is observed for [Formula: see text], in contrast to the exponential behavior of fully gapped superconductors. This indicates the existence of line nodes in the superconducting energy gap. A detailed analysis shows that the normalized superfluid density [Formula: see text], which is converted from [Formula: see text], can be well described by a multigap scenario, with nodes in one of the superconducting gaps, providing clear evidence for nodal superconductivity in Ta4Pd3Te16.