Spin-rotation symmetry breaking in the superconducting state of CuxBi2Se3

By K. Matano, M. Kriener, K. Segawa, Y. Ando, G. Zheng. Nature Physics, 2015

300 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Spontaneous symmetry breaking is an important concept for understanding physics ranging from the elementary particles to states of matter. For example, the superconducting state breaks global gauge symmetry, and unconventional superconductors can break further symmetries. In particular, spin-rotational symmetry is expected to be broken in spin-triplet superconductors. However, experimental evidence for such symmetry breaking has not been conclusively obtained so far in any candidate compounds. Here, using 77Se nuclear magnetic resonance measurements, we show that spin-rotation symmetry is spontaneously broken in the hexagonal plane of the electron-doped topological insulator Cu0.3Bi2Se3 below the superconducting transition temperature Tc = 3.4 K. Our results not only establish spin-triplet superconductivity in this compound, but may also serve to lay a foundation for the research of topological superconductivity. A series of 77Se nuclear magnetic resonance measurements on the electron-doped topological insulator Cu0.3Bi2Se3 reveal a spontaneous breaking of the rotational spin symmetry below its superconducting transition temperature.

Subfields: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Condensed Matter Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ef28b63793b22e5765cde2674483a5b6e64a5cc6

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

1. Y. Ando
2. Masatoshi Sato
3. K. Kawabata
4. Ken Shiozaki
5. Masahito Ueda

In Condensed Matter Physics

1. Y. Ando
2. Masatoshi Sato
3. Masahito Ueda

Citations in the corpus

• Topological superconductors: a review (2016, methodology): “The nematicity has so far been detected through uniaxial anisotropy in the Knight shift [191], specific heat [192], and upper critical field [192], in their dependencies on the orientation of the applied in-plane magnetic field.”