Superconductivity of heavy carriers in the pressure-induced phases of Cd2Re2O7

The superconductivity of Cd2Re2O7 is investigated under hydrostatic pressures up to 4.6 GPa by means of electrical resistivity. A rich phase diagram is obtained, which contains at least five new pressure-induced phases in addition to the three already present at ambient pressure, revealing inherent structural and electronic instabilities of the compound. We find large enhancements of more than one order of magnitude in the upper critical field as well as in the coefficient of the T2 term in resistivity at around a critical pressure of 4.2 GPa, where an inversion-symmetry-breaking structural transition tends to disappear. Heavy fermion superconductivity is probably realized under high pressures in Cd2Re2O7, which is extraordinary for d-electron compounds. (author)