Evidence for broken time-reversal symmetry in the superconducting phase of URu2Si2

Abstract

Recent experimental and theoretical interest in the superconducting phase of the heavy fermion material URu2Si2 has led to a number of proposals in which the superconducting order parameter breaks time-reversal symmetry (TRS). In this study we measured polar Kerr effect (PKE) as a function of temperature for several high-quality single crystals of URu2Si2. We find an onset of PKE below the superconducting transition that is consistent with a TRS-breaking order parameter. This effect appears to be independent of an additional, possibly extrinsic, PKE generated above the hidden order transition at THO=17.5 K, and contains structure below Tc suggestive of additional physics within the superconducting state.

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