Investigation of Pair Density Wave in UTe₂ under Vector Magnetic Field

Oral-In-person

Abstract

Intertwined electronic orders are a hallmark of strongly correlated quantum materials, where different phases emerge from the same microscopic interactions rather than simple phase competition. Among these, the pair-density-wave (PDW) state represents a key manifestation of such coupling. In UTe₂, an unusual incommensurate charge-density-wave (CDW) order (qi) has been observed to melt near Hc2, suggesting a PDW-driven mechanism for the charge modulation. Using vector-field scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), we uncover another set of CDW modulations (ci) coexisting with qi, characterized by half wave vectors |ci| = 1/2 |qi|. Further measurements reveal that these modulations exhibit distinct onset temperatures and anisotropic magnetic-field responses. The  ccomponent is suppressed around Tc  = 2.1 K, suggesting that it couples to the uniform superconducting condensate, while qpersists up to 4.8 K. Above Tc, the qi component is selectively suppressed by field following the hierarchy Hb> Hc> Ha, in agreement with the anisotropy of Hc2 along different crystallographic axes. Our results provide microscopic evidence for intertwined superconductivity, CDW, and PDW orders in UTe₂.

Presenters

  • Yudi Huang

    • University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Authors

  • Yudi Huang

    • University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
  • Zhen Zhu

    • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • Julian May-Mann

    • Stanford University
  • Kaiming Liu

  • Zheyu Wu

    • Univ of Cambridge
  • Johnpierre Paglione

    • University of Maryland College Park
  • Alexander Eaton

    • Univ of Cambridge
  • Michal Vališka

  • Eduardo Fradkin

    • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • Vidya Madhavan

    • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign