Condensed Matter Seminar

Piers Coleman
Rutgers University

Thursday, April 3, 2008
1:00 pm in SPL 52

Composite pairing in the new "high Tc" Heavy Fermion Superconductors

Abstract: The discovery in 1996 of superconductivity at 0.2K near a magnetic quantum phase transition in CeIn3 opened a new dynasty of superconducting heavy electron materials, with many peculiar parallels to cuprate superconductors. In 2000, the introduction of additional layers of XIn_2, led to the discovery of the so-called "115" superconductors, with a tenfold increase in Tc. In 2002, the replacement of Ce by Pu, drove the Tc up by an additional order of magnitude to 18.5K. The recent discovery of a second material in this family has further deepened the mystery.