Journal
NATURE
Volume 412, Issue 6842, Pages 58-61Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/35083531
Keywords
-
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
It has generally been believed that, within the context of the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) theory of superconductivity, the conduction electrons in a metal cannot be both ferromagnetically ordered and superconducting(1,2). Even when the superconductivity has been interpreted as arising from magnetic mediation of the paired electrons, it was thought that the superconducting state occurs in the paramagnetic phase(3,4). Here we report the observation of superconductivity in the ferromagnetically ordered phase of the d-electron compound ZrZn2. The specific heat anomaly associated with the superconducting transition in this material appears to be absent, and the superconducting state is very sensitive to defects, occurring only in very pure samples. Under hydrostatic pressure superconductivity and ferromagnetism disappear at the same pressure, so the ferromagnetic state appears to be a prerequisite for superconductivity. When combined with the recent observation of superconductivity in UGe2 (ref. 4), our results suggest that metallic ferromagnets may universally become superconducting when the magnetization is small.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available