Quasi-2D Fermi surface in the anomalous superconductor UTe<sub>2</sub>.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 38172154.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-023-44110-4 and PMC identifier 10764345.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
The heavy fermion paramagnet UTe<sub>2</sub> exhibits numerous characteristics of spin-triplet superconductivity. Efforts to understand the microscopic details of this exotic superconductivity have been impeded by uncertainty regarding the underlying electronic structure. Here we directly probe the Fermi surface of UTe<sub>2</sub> by measuring magnetic quantum oscillations in pristine quality crystals. We find an angular profile of quantum oscillatory frequency and amplitude that is characteristic of a quasi-2D Fermi surface, which we find is well described by two cylindrical Fermi sheets of electron- and hole-type respectively. Additionally, we find that both cylindrical Fermi sheets possess considerable undulation but negligible small-scale corrugation, which may allow for their near-nesting and therefore promote magnetic fluctuations that enhance the triplet pairing mechanism. Importantly, we find no evidence for the presence of any 3D Fermi surface sections. Our results place strong constraints on the possible symmetry of the superconducting order parameter in UTe<sub>2</sub>.