Unconventional superconductivity in the Kondo-lattice system CeCu$_2$Si$_2$ -- a personal perspective

TL;DR

This paper reviews the discovery and understanding of unconventional superconductivity in the heavy-fermion Kondo-lattice system CeCu$_2$Si$_2$, highlighting its non-BCS nature and broader implications for correlated electron systems.

Contribution

It provides a personal perspective on the discovery, properties, and significance of non-BCS superconductivity in CeCu$_2$Si$_2$, emphasizing its role as a prototype for heavy-fermion superconductors.

Findings

CeCu$_2$Si$_2$ exhibits non-BCS-type superconductivity.

Superconductivity arises from a lattice of magnetic Ce$^{3+}$ ions.

Heavy-fermion superconductors include over fifty related compounds.

Abstract

In the first part of this article, I briefly review early research activities concerning strongly correlated electron systems, beginning with the discovery of superconductivity and the first observation of a resistance minimum in nominally pure Cu-metal, which was explained many years later by Kondo. I will also address the antagonistic behavior of conventional (BCS) superconductivity and magnetism. The main focus of this paper is on the discovery of non-BCS-type superconductivity in the Kondo-lattice system CeCu$_2$Si$_2$, a prototypical heavy-fermion metal. Here, the superconducting state is created by a periodic lattice of 100% of magnetic Ce^3+ ions. Meanwhile, more than fifty lanthanide-, actinide-, and transition-metal-based intermetallic compounds are known to belong to the class of heavy-fermion superconductors. Finally, I will give my personal view of the current knowledge of this kind of unconventional superconductivity.