Superconducting Higgs mode in quasi-one-dimensional CDW metal ZrTe3
Superconducting amplitude mode, or Higgs mode, is a long-predicted collective mode in quantum many-body systems, but lacks experimental investigations because it is not directly coupled to external probes. Charge-density-wave (CDW) superconductors offer an opportunity for detecting it because the superconducting Higgs mode is coupled to amplitude excitations of the CDW order, as has been recently demonstrated by Raman scattering in NbSe2. Here we propose to investigate superconducting Higgs mode in ZrTe3 using inelastic neutron scattering (INS). ZrTe3 is a quasi-one-dimensional prototypical CDW material, and bulk superconductivity coexists with CDW below 3.1 K in annealed-quenched samples. The simplicity of the CDW order in ZrTe3 offers an ideal platform for studying the superconducting Higgs mode. We have performed a preliminary search at PANDA (MLZ, Germany) with promising results and the conclusion that a high-flux instrument will be necessary to firmly establish and extend the observation. We propose to further pursue this study using the high-flux cold-neutron spectrometer ThALES.
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CERMAK Petr; LI Yuan; Astrid Schneidewind; STEFFENS Paul and XUE Shangjie. (2017). Superconducting Higgs mode in quasi-one-dimensional CDW metal ZrTe3. Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) doi:10.5291/ILL-DATA.4-02-503
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