Fabrication of Heavy Fermion Superlattices

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25220710
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (S)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Condensed matter physics II
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: Matsuda Yuji 京都大学, 理学研究科, 教授 (50199816)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 芝内 孝禎 東京大学, 大学院新領域創成科学研究科, 教授 (00251356) ; 笠原 成 京都大学, 理学研究科, 助教 (10425556) ; 花栗 哲郎 国立研究開発法人理化学研究所, その他, 研究員 (40251326) ; 寺嶋 孝仁 京都大学, 理学研究科, 教授 (40252506)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-05-31 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 重い電子 / 非従来型超伝導 / 量子臨界点 / 界面 / スピン密度波 / 量子スピン液体 / 鉄系超伝導 / ボース・アインシュタイン凝縮

Outline of Final Research Achievements

By fabricating various artificial superlattices made of heavy fermion compounds, we studied the quantum criticality and novel superconducting states in strongly correlated electron systems. In hybrid superlattices consisting of alternating atomic layers of d-wave superconductor CeCoIn5 and antiferromagnetic metal CeRhIn5, we demonstrated that superconducting pairing can be tuned nontrivially by magnetic fluctuations injected through the interface. In tricolor Kondo superlattices, where CeCoIn5 sandwiched by two different nonmagnetic metals, we found that the Rashba spin-orbit interaction induced global inversion symmetry breaking leads to profound changes in the superconducting properties of CeCoIn5. We also succeeded the in-situ STM observation of electronic structure of CeCoIn5 and CeRhIn5 thin films. We found that the films have very wide atomically flat terraces, demonstrating that the Kondo lattices grown MBE provide a new playground for exploring exotic superconducting states.

Free Research Field

低温物理学