Superconductivity and Magnetic Order: Low Temperature Phase Diagrams

ABSTRACTRecent experiments on magnetically-ordered ternary and pseudoternary rare earth superconductors are briefly reviewed. Superconductivity has been found to coexist with antiferromagnetic order, but to be destroyed by the onset of ferromagnetic order at a second transition temperature Tc2∼TM, where TM is the Curie temperature. In antiferromagnetic superconductors, the antiferromagnetic order modifies superconducting properties such as the curve of the upper critical magnetic field versus temperature. In ferromagnetic superconductors, a long wavelength (∼ 102 Å sinusoidally modulated magnetic state develops in the superconducting state as a result of the superconducting-ferromagnetic interactions. The interplay of superconductivity and competing magnetic interactions in pseudoternary rare earth systems produces complex and interesting low temperature phase diagrams.