Magnetovolume Effect on the First-Order Metamagnetic Transition in UTe2

Abstract

The link between the metamagnetic transition and novel spin-triplet superconductivity of UTe2 was discussed thermodynamically through magnetostriction measurements in a pulsed-magnetic field. We revealed a discontinuous magnetostriction across the metamagnetic transition at μ0Hm ≈ 35 T for the applied magnetic fields along the crystallographic b axis in the orthorhombic structure. The resultant volume magnetostriction of ΔV=V ≈ -5.9 × 10-4 gives the initial pressure dependence of Hm by employing the Clausius-Clapeyron's equation, which agrees with previous pressure experiments. Further, significant anisotropic magnetostriction (AMS), derived by subtracting the averaged linear magnetostriction, was revealed. Contrary to the weakly field-dependent AMS along the a axis, those along the b and c axes show strong field dependences with a similar magnitude but with opposite signs, indicating its lattice instability. The relationship between characteristic energy scales of magnetic fields and temperatures was discussed in terms of the Grüneisen parameters compared to the other f-electron systems. The volume shrinkage in UTe2 at Hm, contrary to the volume expansion in typical heavy fermion metamagnets, pushes to invoke the link with the valence instability related to the itinerant-localized dual nature of the U magnetism.