The chromium pnictide materials: A tunable platform for exploring new exciting phenomena

Dipartimento di Fisica “E.R. Caianiello”, Università degli Studi di Salerno - I-84084 Fisciano (SA), Italy and CNR-SPIN, UOS di Salerno - I-84084 Fisciano (SA), Italy

Received: 15 June 2020
Accepted: 2 July 2020

Abstract

Among intermetallic compounds between 3d transition metals and pnictogens, compounds containing chromium and arsenide ions are of special interest due to their rich variety of electronic, magnetic and superconducting properties. The monopnictide CrAs compound, although known since over fifty years ago, was observed to exhibit pressure-induced superconductivity in the vicinity of an antiferromagnetic quantum critical point, making it the first superconductor among Cr-based compounds. After this discovery, seeking for ambient pressure superconductivity in Cr-based compounds, bulk superconductivity was discovered in the pnictide K₂Cr₃As₃. These discoveries boost the search and the investigation of the several interesting phenomena exhibited by these materials that actually need to be properly addressed. Here, we try to give a comprehensive overview on these materials showing that they may provide a tunable platform for emphasising the role played by the quantum criticality, the low dimensionality, the magnetic fluctuations and the topology.