Observation of Vortex Stripes in UTe<sub>2</sub>
In conventional type-II superconductors, quantum vortices determine the magnetic response of the system and tend to form regular lattices. UTe<sub>2</sub> is a recently discovered heavy Fermion superconductor exhibiting many anomalous macroscopic behaviors, but whether it has a multicomponent order parameter remains open. Here, we study the vortices of UTe<sub>2</sub> by employing scanning superconducting quantum interference device microscopy. While a small out-of-plane magnetic field produces typical isolated vortices, a higher field generates vortex stripe patterns that evolve with the vortex density. The stripes form at different locations and along different directions in the surface plane when the field is along the <i>b</i> or <i>c</i> axis. The behavior is reproduced by our simulation based on an anisotropic two-component order parameter. This study shows that UTe<sub>2</sub> has a nontrivial disparity of multiple length scales, placing constraints on the multicomponent superconductivity.
Authors
- Hongxu Yao
- Qiushi He
- Thomas Winyard (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7923-5739)
- Puhua Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9950-8258)
- Bo-Ren Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7596-9145)
- Qizhi Zhou
- Bingke Xiang
- Egor Babaev (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7593-4543)
- D. F. Agterberg (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0178-1374)
- Yihua Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5590-5881)
- Sheng Ran (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1557-267X)
- Christopher Broyles (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9515-8801)
- Youfang Wang
- Zhijie Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9870-9939)
- Keyi Liang
- Kaixun Yao
- Jinjiang Zhu
- Shannon Gould
Institutions
- Washington University in St. Louis (US)
- University of Missouri–St. Louis (US)
- Fudan University (CN)
- Maxwell Institute for Mathematical Sciences (GB)
- Science and Technology on Surface Physics and Chemistry Laboratory (CN)
- University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (US)
- State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics
- KTH Royal Institute of Technology (SE)
- University of Edinburgh (GB)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nano Letters
- Published
- 2025-08-15
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.5c02265
- Primary Topic
- Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality
- National Key Research and Development Program of China
- Division of Materials Research
- Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering