Effects of strain in multiorbital superconductors: The case of Sr2RuO4

Abstract

Uniaxial-strain experiments have become a powerful tool to unveil the character of unconventional phases of electronic matter. Here, we propose a combination of the superconducting fitness analysis and density functional theory calculations to dissect the effects of strain in complex multiorbital quantum materials from a microscopic perspective. We apply this framework to the superconducting state of Sr2RuO4 and argue that the recently proposed orbitally antisymmetric spin triplet order parameter candidate has unique signatures under strain which are in agreement with recent observations. In particular, we can account for the asymmetric splitting of the critical temperatures for compressive strain along the (100) direction and the reduction of the critical temperature for compressive strain along the (001) and (110) directions with a single free parameter.