Simultaneous suppression of ferromagnetism and superconductivity in UCoGe by Si substitution

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that substituting Si for Ge in UCoGe suppresses both ferromagnetism and superconductivity, revealing a continuous quantum phase transition and supporting magnetically mediated superconductivity.

Contribution

It provides new insights into how chemical substitution influences ferromagnetic and superconducting states in UCoGe, highlighting a quantum critical point.

Findings

Ferromagnetism and superconductivity are suppressed with increasing Si content.

A quantum phase transition occurs at a critical Si concentration.

Superconductivity exists only within the ferromagnetic phase.

Abstract

We investigate the effect of substituting Si for Ge in the ferromagnetic superconductor UCoGe. Dc-magnetization, ac-susceptibility and electrical resistivity measurements on polycrystalline UCoGe$_{1-x}$Si$_x$ samples show that ferromagnetic order and superconductivity are progressively depressed with increasing Si content and simultaneously vanish at a critical concentration $x_{cr} \simeq 0.12$. The non-Fermi liquid temperature variation in the electrical resistivity near $x_{cr}$ and the smooth depression of the ordered moment point to a continuous ferromagnetic quantum phase transition. Superconductivity is confined to the ferromagnetic phase, which provides further evidence for magnetically mediated superconductivity.