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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Coexisting Kondo hybridization and itinerant f-electron ferromagnetism in UGe2

Ioannis Giannakis1, Divyanshi Sar1, Joel Friedman1, Chang-Jong Kang2,3, Marc Janoschek4,*, Pinaki Das4,†, Eric D. Bauer4, Gabriel Kotliar2,5, and Pegor Aynajian1,‡

  • 1Department of Physics, Applied Physics and Astronomy, Binghamton University, Binghamton, New York 13902, USA
  • 2Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854, USA
  • 3Department of Physics, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 34134, South Korea
  • 4Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA
  • 5Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA

  • *Present address: Laboratory for Neutron and Muon Instrumentation, Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen PSI, Switzerland.
  • †Present address: Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 S. Cass Ave, Lemont, IL 60439.
  • ‡Corresponding author: aynajian@binghamton.edu
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Phys. Rev. Research 4, L022030 – Published 6 May, 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.4.L022030

Abstract

Kondo hybridization in partially filled f-electron systems conveys a significant amount of electronic states sharply near the Fermi energy leading to various instabilities from superconductivity to exotic electronic orders. UGe2 is a 5f heavy fermion system, where the Kondo hybridization is interrupted by the formation of two ferromagnetic phases below a second order transition Tc∼52K and a crossover transition Tx∼32K. These two ferromagnetic phases are concomitantly related to a spin-triplet superconductivity that only emerges and persists inside the magnetically ordered phase at high pressure. The origin of the two ferromagnetic phases and how they form within a Kondo-lattice remain ambiguous. Using scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy, we probe the spatial electronic states in the UGe2 as a function of temperature. We find a Kondo resonance and sharp 5f-electron states near the chemical potential that form at high temperatures above Tc in accordance with our density functionaltheory+Gutzwiller calculations. As temperature is lowered below Tc, the resonance narrows and eventually splits below Tx dumping itinerant f-electron spectral weight right at the Fermi energy. Our findings suggest a Stoner mechanism forming the highly polarized ferromagnetic phase below Tx that itself sets the stage for the emergence of unconventional superconductivity at high pressure.

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Outline

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Phys. Rev. Research 4, L022030– Published 6 May, 2022
  • Received 25 January 2022
  • Revised 17 March 2022
  • Accepted 16 April 2022
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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