Quasi-Two-Dimensional Fermi Surfaces and Unitary Spin-Triplet Pairing in the Heavy Fermion Superconductor UTe2

• Published in: Physical review letters Vol. 123; no. 21; p. 1
• Main Authors: Xu, Yuanji, Sheng, Yutao, Yang, Yi-feng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: College Park American Physical Society 19-11-2019
• Subjects: Anisotropy; Cylinders; Fermi surfaces; Fermions; First principles; Heavy fermion superconductors; Magnetic properties; Magnetic variations; Nesting; Spin-orbit interactions; Superconductivity; Thermal conductivity
• ISSN: 0031-9007; 1079-7114
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.217002

We report first-principles and strongly correlated calculations of the newly discovered heavy fermion superconductor UTe2. Our analyses reveal three key aspects of its magnetic, electronic, and superconducting properties that include (i) a two-leg ladder-type structure with strong magnetic frustrations, which might explain the absence of long-range orders and the observed magnetic and transport anisotropy, (ii) quasi-two-dimensional Fermi surfaces composed of two separate electron and hole cylinders with similar nesting properties as in UGe2, which may potentially promote magnetic fluctuations and help to enhance the spin-triplet pairing, and (iii) a unitary spin-triplet pairing state of strong spin-orbit coupling at zero field, with point nodes presumably on the heavier hole Fermi surface along the kx direction, in contrast to the previous belief of nonunitary pairing. Our proposed scenario is in excellent agreement with latest thermal conductivity measurement and provides a basis for understanding the peculiar magnetic and superconducting properties of UTe2.