Publication Date:
2010-06-12
Description:
Order parameter symmetry is one of the basic characteristics of a superconductor. The heavy fermion compound UPt3 provides a rich system for studying the competition between superconductivity and other forms of electronic order and exhibits two distinct superconducting phases that are characterized by different symmetries. We fabricated a series of Josephson tunnel junctions on the as-grown surfaces of UPt3 single crystals spanning the a-b plane. By measuring their critical current, we mapped out the magnitude of the superconducting order parameter as a function of the momentum-space direction and temperature. In the high-temperature phase, we observed a sharp node in the superconducting gap at 45 degrees with respect to the a axis; an out-of-phase component appeared in the low-temperature phase, creating a complex order parameter.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Strand, J D -- Bahr, D J -- Van Harlingen, D J -- Davis, J P -- Gannon, W J -- Halperin, W P -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2010 Jun 11;328(5984):1368-9. doi: 10.1126/science.1187943.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA. strand2@illinois.edu〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20538942" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
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Chemistry and Pharmacology
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Computer Science
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Medicine
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Natural Sciences in General
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Physics
