Longitudinal spin fluctuations and superconductivity in ferromagnetic ZrZn2 from Ab initio calculations

Phys Rev Lett. 2001 Dec 10;87(24):247004. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.87.247004. Epub 2001 Nov 26.

Abstract

The recent discovery of superconductivity coexisting with weak itinerant ferromagnetism in the d-electron intermetallic compound ZrZn2 strongly suggests spin-fluctuation mediated superconductivity. Ab initio electronic structure calculations of the Fermi surface and generalized susceptibilities are performed to investigate the viability of longitudinal spin-fluctuation-induced spin-triplet superconductivity in the ferromagnetic state. The critical temperature is estimated to be of the order of 1 K. Additionally, it is shown that in spite of a strong electron-phonon coupling ( lambda(ph) = 0.7), conventional s-wave superconductivity is inhibited by the presence of strong spin fluctuations.