Effects of nucleation at a first-order transition between two superconducting phases: Application to CeRh2As2
András L. Szabó, Mark H. Fischer, Manfred Sigrist
DOI 10.1103/PhysRevResearch.6.023080 · Physical Review Research
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Abstract
Recent experiments observed a phase transition within the superconducting regime of the heavy-fermion system CeRh2As2 when subjected to a c-axis magnetic field. This phase transition has been interpreted as a parity switching from even to odd parity as the field is increased, and is believed to be of first order. If correct, this scenario provides a unique opportunity to study the phenomenon of local nucleation around inhomogeneities in a superconducting context. Here, we study such nucleation in the form of sharp domain walls emerging on a background of spatially varying material properties and hence, critical magnetic field. To this end, we construct a spatially inhomogeneous Ginzburg-Landau functional and apply numerical minimization to demonstrate the existence of localized domain-wall solutions and study their physical properties. Furthermore, we propose ultrasound attenuation as an experimental bulk probe of domain-wall physics in the system. In particular, we predict the appearance of an absorption peak due to domain-wall percolation upon tuning the magnetic field across the first-order transition line. We argue that the temperature dependence of this peak could help identify the nature of the phase transition.
Source-reported materials — not catalogue approval
| Formula | Reported Tc (K) | Pressure (GPa) | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| CeRh2As2 Archive — visibility unverified Source-occurrence policy only; no material identity or catalogue acceptance is inferred from the formula. | 0.26 | Pressure not reported | onset |
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