Exchange field enhanced upper critical field of the superconductivity in compressed antiferromagnetic EuTe2

Abstract

Understanding the interplay between superconductivity and magnetism has been a longstanding challenge in condensed matter physics. Here we report high pressure studies on the C-type antiferromagnetic semiconductor EuTe2 up to 36.0 GPa. A structural transition from the I4/mcm to the C2/m space group is identified at ~16 GPa. Superconductivity is observed above ~5 GPa in both structures. In the low-pressure phase, magnetoresistance measurements reveal strong couplings between the local moments of Eu2+ and the conduction electrons of Te 5p orbits. The upper critical field of superconductivity is well above the Pauli limit. While EuTe2 becomes nonmagnetic in the high-pressure phase and the upper critical field drops below the Pauli limit. Our results demonstrate that the high upper critical field of EuTe2 in the low-pressure phase is due to the exchange field compensation effect of Eu2+ and the superconductivity in both structures may arise in the framework of the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory.

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Sun, Hualei, Qiu, Liang, Han, Yifeng, et al.. "Exchange field enhanced upper critical field of the superconductivity in compressed antiferromagnetic EuTe2." Communications Physics, 6, (2023) Springer Nature: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-023-01155-7.

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