Heavy fermion superconductivity and magnetic order in non-centrosymmetric $CePt_3Si$

TL;DR

CePt_3Si is a unique heavy fermion superconductor lacking inversion symmetry, exhibiting antiferromagnetic order and heavy quasiparticle superconductivity at very low temperatures, with notable upper critical field characteristics.

Contribution

This paper reports the discovery and characterization of CePt_3Si as the first non-centrosymmetric heavy fermion superconductor with coexisting magnetic order and superconductivity.

Findings

Antiferromagnetic order at T_N ≈ 2.2 K

Superconductivity at T_c ≈ 0.75 K

Large upper critical field indicating heavy quasiparticles

Abstract

$\rm CePt_3Si$ is a novel heavy fermion superconductor, crystallising in the $\rm CePt_3B$ structure as a tetragonally distorted low symmetry variant of the $\rm AuCu_3$ structure type. $\rm CePt_3Si$ exhibits antiferromagnetic order at $T_N \approx 2.2$ K and enters into a heavy fermion superconducting state at $T_c \approx 0.75$ K. Large values of $H_{c2}' \approx -8.5$ T/K and $H_{c2}(0) \approx 5$ T refer to heavy quasiparticles forming Cooper pairs. Hitherto, $\rm CePt_3Si$ is the first heavy fermion superconductor without a center of symmetry.