Unveiling Pair Density Wave States in Various Superconductors

Researchers have detected a pair density wave (PDW) state in the compound UTe2, a superconductor with spin-triplet pairing. The PDW state is characterized by a spatially modulating superconductive order parameter. Visualization techniques using scanning tunneling microscopy revealed the coexistence of a charge density wave (CDW) and PDW states in UTe2. The CDW exhibits incommensurate charge-density modulations at three wavevectors, while the PDW is induced at the wavevector of the CDW. These findings provide further evidence for the presence of a spin-triplet, odd-parity, nodal, time-reversal symmetry breaking, chiral superconductor in UTe2.