Suppression of antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations in superconducting Cr0.8 Ru0.2
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Ames National Laboratory is a government-owned, contractor-operated national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), operated by and located on the campus of Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa.
For more than 70 years, the Ames National Laboratory has successfully partnered with Iowa State University, and is unique among the 17 DOE laboratories in that it is physically located on the campus of a major research university. Many of the scientists and administrators at the Laboratory also hold faculty positions at the University and the Laboratory has access to both undergraduate and graduate student talent.
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Abstract
Unconventional superconductivity (SC) often develops in magnetic metals on the cusp of static antiferromagnetic (AFM) order where spin fluctuations are strong. This association is so compelling that many SC materials are labeled as unconventional by proximity to an ordered AFM state. The Cr-Ru alloy system possesses such a phase diagram [see Fig. 1(a)]. Here we use inelastic neutron scattering to show that spin fluctuations are present in a SC Cr0.8Ru0.2 alloy (Tc=1.35 K). However, the neutron spin resonance, a possible signature of unconventional SC, is not observed. Instead, data indicate a spin gap of order 2Δ (the superconducting gap) and a suppression of magnetic spectral weight at energies well above 2Δ. The suppression decreases the magnetic exchange energy, suggesting that low energy spin fluctuations oppose the formation of SC. In conjunction with other experimental evidence, a possible scenario is that conventional SC sits on the cusp of AFM order in Cr-Ru alloys.