Tc and the elastocaloric effect of Sr2RuO4 under (110) uniaxial stress: No indications of transition splitting
Journal
Physical Review B
Journal Volume
110
Journal Issue
6
Start Page
064514
ISSN
2469-9950
2469-9969
Date Issued
2024-08-26
Author(s)
Fabian Jerzembeck
Grgur Palle
Zhenhai Hu
Mehdi Biderang
Naoki Kikugawa
Dmitry A. Sokolov
Sayak Ghosh
Brad J. Ramshaw
Thomas Scaffidi
Michael Nicklas
Jörg Schmalian
Andrew P. Mackenzie
Clifford W. Hicks
Abstract
There is considerable evidence that the superconductivity of Sr2RuO4 has two components. Among this evidence is a jump in the shear elastic modulus c66 at the critical temperature Tc, observed in ultrasound measurements. Such a jump is forbidden for homogeneous single-component order parameters, and it implies that Tc should develop as a cusp under the application of shear strain with (110) principal axes. This shear strain should split the onset temperatures of the two components, if they coexist, or select one component if they do not. Here, we report measurements of Tc and the elastocaloric effect of Sr2RuO4 under uniaxial stress applied along the [110] lattice direction. Within experimental resolution, we resolve neither a cusp in the stress dependence of Tc, nor any second transition in the elastocaloric effect data. We show that reconciling these null results with the observed jumps in c66 requires extraordinarily fine tuning to a triple point of the Ginzburg-Landau parameter space. In addition, our results are inconsistent with homogeneous time-reversal symmetry breaking at a temperature T2≤Tc as identified in muon spin relaxation experiments.
Publisher
American Physical Society (APS)
Type
journal article