Visualizing Heavy Fermion Confinement and Pauli-Limited Superconductivity in Layered CeCoIn5

TL;DR

This study uses scanning tunneling microscopy to directly visualize the layered electronic states and confinement effects in the heavy fermion superconductor CeCoIn5, revealing anisotropic properties and phase transitions related to superconductivity.

Contribution

It provides direct, layer-resolved imaging of heavy fermion electronic states and their confinement, anisotropy, and phase behavior in CeCoIn5, advancing understanding of layered correlated electron systems.

Findings

Heavy quasi-particles are strongly confined within layers.

Layer-by-layer modulation of the pseudogap phase was observed.

Electronic phase separation occurs near the upper critical magnetic field.

Abstract

Layered material structures play a key role in enhancing electron-electron interactions to create correlated metallic phases that can transform into unconventional superconducting states. The quasi-two-dimensional electronic properties of such compounds are often inferred indirectly through examination of their bulk properties. Here we use scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy to directly probe in cross section the quasi-two-dimensional correlated electronic states of the heavy fermion superconductor CeCoIn5. Our measurements reveal the strong confined nature of heavy quasi-particles, anisotropy of tunneling characteristics, and layer-by-layer modulated behavior of the precursor pseudogap gap phase in this compound. Examining the interlayer coupled superconducting state at low temperatures, we find that the orientation of line defects relative to the d-wave order parameter determines whether in-gap states form due to scattering. Spectroscopic imaging of the anisotropic magnetic vortex cores directly characterizes the short interlayer superconducting coherence length and shows an electronic phase separation near the upper critical in-plane magnetic field, consistent with a Pauli-limited first-order phase transition into a pseudogap phase.