High magnetic field behavior of strongly correlated uranium-based compounds

Abstract

Magnetic fields are now available to 100 T (pulsed), 45 T (static) at temperatures below 0.3 K. Such technical developments allow the study and tuning of (quantum) phase transitions, unusual magnetic structures and (high-temperature) superconductors in a variety of quantum materials. An especially important class of strongly correlated electron materials is the heavy Fermi liquids (HFLs) displaying numerous reduced-moment antiferromagnets, quantum critical points, unconventional superconductivity, hidden order (HO) and other mysterious ground states. Among the ‘heavy fermions’, the duality of 5f electrons in uranium-based compounds introduces interesting behavior that can be affected by large magnetic fields. I list a few such heavy fermion materials to be considered: URu2Si2 and its tunable hidden state, UBe13 and UPt3 as very HFL paramagnets that become superconducting, the magnetic superconductors UPd2Al3 and UNi2Al3, and the ferromagnetic s UGe2, URhGe and UCoGe. There are also the suggested metamagnetic Fermi-surface reconstructed intermetallic compounds such as UPt2Si2 and UCo2Si2. Present research attention focuses on the high-field behavior (30–40 T) of URu2Si2 and its destruction of HO. These and other U-based systems, e.g. UAu2Si2, UIrGe, etc., expand the opportunities of high magnetic field studies far into the future.