Fate of the Hebel-Slichter peak in superconductors with strong antiferromagnetic fluctuations

TL;DR

Magnetic antiferromagnetic fluctuations can suppress the Hebel-Slichter peak in conventional superconductors, challenging its use as an indicator of s-wave pairing, especially near magnetic phases.

Contribution

This work demonstrates that antiferromagnetic fluctuations can destroy the Hebel-Slichter peak, providing a new perspective on interpreting superconducting properties near magnetic phases.

Findings

Antiferromagnetic fluctuations suppress the Hebel-Slichter peak at q=0.

Absence of the peak does not necessarily imply unconventional pairing.

Applying pressure may restore the peak by reducing magnetic fluctuations.

Abstract

We show that magnetic fluctuations can destroy the Hebel-Slichter peak in conventional superconductors. The Hebel-Slichter peak has previously been expected to survive even in the presence of strong electronic interactions. However, we show that antiferromagnetic fluctuations suppress the peak at $\bf{q}=0$ in the imaginary part of the magnetic susceptibility, $\chi_{+-}''\left(\bf{q},\omega\right)$, which causes the Hebel-Slichter peak. This is of general interest as in many materials superconductivity is found near a magnetically ordered phase, and the absence of a Hebel-Slichter peak is taken as evidence of unconventional superconductivity in these systems. For example, no Hebel-Slichter peak is observed in the $\kappa$-(BEDT-TTF)$_2X$ organic superconductors but heat capacity measurements have been taken to indicate $s$-wave superconductivity. If antiferromagnetic fluctuations destroy the putative Hebel-Slichter peak in organic superconductors then the peak should be restored by applying a pressure, which is known to suppress antiferromagnetic correlations in these materials.