Metastable phase of UTe$_2$ formed under high pressure above 5 GPa

التفاصيل البيبلوغرافية
العنوان: Metastable phase of UTe$_2$ formed under high pressure above 5 GPa
المؤلفون: Huston, L. Q., Popov, D. Y., Weiland, A., Bordelon, M. M., Rosa, P. F. S., Rowland II, R. L., Scott, B. L., Shen, G., Park, C., Moss, E. K., Thomas, S. M., Thompson, J. D., Sturtevant, B. T., Bauer, E. D.
المصدر: Physical Review Materials 6, 114801 (2022)
سنة النشر: 2023
المجموعة: Condensed Matter
مصطلحات موضوعية: Condensed Matter - Strongly Correlated Electrons, Condensed Matter - Superconductivity
الوصف: Uranium ditelluride (UTe$_2$) has attracted recent interest due to its unique superconducting properties, which include the potential for a topological odd-parity superconducting state. Recently, ac-calorimetry measurements under pressure indicate a change in the ground state of UTe$_2$ from superconducting to antiferromagnetic at 1.4 GPa. Here, we investigate the effect of pressure on the crystal structure of UTe$_2$ up to 25 GPa at room temperature using x-ray diffraction. We find that UTe$_2$, which at ambient conditions has an orthorhombic ($Immm$) structure, transforms to a body-centered tetragonal ($I4/mmm$) structure at 5 GPa in a quasi-hydrostatic neon (Ne) pressure transmitting medium. In the absence of a pressure-transmitting medium, this transformation occurs between 5 and 8 GPa. The data were fit with a third-order Birch-Murnaghan equation of state resulting in values of $B_0$=46.0 $\pm$ 0.6 GPa, $B^{\prime}$=9.3 $\pm$ 0.5 (no pressure medium) and $B_0$=42.5 $\pm$ 2.0 GPa, $B^{\prime}$=9.3 (fixed) (neon pressure medium) for the $Immm$ phase. For the $I4/mmm$ phase, $B_0$=78.9 $\pm$ 0.5 GPa and $B^{\prime}$=4.2 $\pm$ 0.1 (no pressure transmitting medium), and $B_0$=70.0 $\pm$ 1.1 GPa and $B^{\prime}$=4.1 $\pm$ 0.2 (neon pressure medium). The high-pressure tetragonal phase is retained after decompression to ambient pressure, with approximately 30% remaining after 2 days. We argue that the observed phase transition into a higher symmetry structure at P~5 GPa (orthorhombic to tetragonal), is accompanied by an increase in the shortest distance between uranium atoms from 3.6 Angstrom (orthorhombic) to 3.9 Angstrom (tetragonal), which suggests localization of the 5f electrons, albeit with a 10.7% decrease in volume.
Comment: Includes supplemental material
نوع الوثيقة: Working Paper
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.6.114801
URL الوصول: http://arxiv.org/abs/2310.10491
رقم الأكسشن: edsarx.2310.10491
قاعدة البيانات: arXiv
الوصف
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.6.114801