Anisotropy reversal of the upper critical field at low temperatures and spin-locked superconductivity in K2Cr3As3
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We report measurements of the anisotropic upper critical field Hc2(T) for K2Cr3As3 single crystals up to 60 T and T>0.6K. Our results show that the upper critical field parallel to the Cr chains, H∥c2(T), exhibits a paramagnetically limited behavior, whereas the shape of the H⊥c2(T) curve (perpendicular to the Cr chains) has no evidence of paramagnetic effects. As a result, the curves H⊥c2(T) and H∥c2(T) cross at T≈4K, so that the anisotropy parameter γH(T)=H⊥c2/H∥c2(T) increases from γH(Tc)≈0.35 near Tc to γH(0)≈1.7 at 0.6 K. The paramagnetically limited behavior of H∥c2(T) is inconsistent with triplet superconductivity but suggests a form of singlet superconductivity with the electron spins locked onto the direction of Cr chains.
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This article is published as Balakirev, F. F., T. Kong, M. Jaime, R. D. McDonald, C. H. Mielke, A. Gurevich, P. C. Canfield, and S. L. Bud'ko. "Anisotropy reversal of the upper critical field at low temperatures and spin-locked superconductivity in K 2 Cr 3 As 3." Physical Review B 91, no. 22 (2015): 220505. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.91.220505. Posted with permission.