Competition between d-wave superconductivity and magnetism in uniaxially strained Sr2RuO4

Abstract

Abstract The pairing symmetry of Sr2RuO4 is a long-standing fundamental question in the physics of superconducting materials with strong electronic correlations. We use the functional renormalization group to investigate the behavior of superconductivity under uniaxial strain in a two-dimensional realistic model of Sr2RuO4 obtained with density functional theory and incorporating the effect of spin-orbit coupling. We find a dominant $${d}_{{{{{\rm{x}}}}}^{2}-{{{{\rm{y}}}}}^{2}}$$ d x 2 − y 2 superconductor mostly hosted by the d xy-orbital, with no other closely competing superconducting state. Within this framework, we reproduce the experimentally observed enhancement of the critical temperature under strain and propose a simple mechanism driven by the density of states to explain our findings. We also investigate the competition between superconductivity and spin-density wave ordering as a function of interaction strength. By comparing theory and experiment, we discuss constraints on a possible degenerate partner of the $${d}_{{{{{\rm{x}}}}}^{2}-{{{{\rm{y}}}}}^{2}}$$ d x 2 − y 2 superconducting state.