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Sub-Phases in the Superconducting State of CeIrIn$_5$ Revealed by Low Temperature $c$-axis Heat Transport

Low-temperature (down to $\sim$ 50 mK) thermal conductivity measurements with the heat flow direction along the inter-plane tetragonal $c$-axis, $κ_c$, were used to study the superconducting state of heavy fermion CeIrIn$_5$. Measurements were performed in the magnetic fields both parallel to the heat flow direction, $H\parallel c$, and transverse to it, $H \parallel a$. Inter-plane heat conductivity in $H \parallel c$ configuration shows negligible initial increase with magnetic field and a rapid rise on approaching $H_{c2}$ from below, similar to the expectations for the superconducting gap without line nodes. This observation is in stark contrast to monotonic increase found in the previous in-plane heat transport measurements. In the configuration with the magnetic field breaking the tetragonal symmetry of the lattice, $H \parallel a$, $κ_c$ reveals non-monotonic evolution with temperature and magnetic field suggesting sub-phase boundary in the superconducting state. The characteristic temperature $T_{kink} \sim$ 0.07~K of the sub-boundary is well within the domain of bulk superconductivity $T_c \sim$ 0.4~K and $H_{c2}\sim$ 1.0~T. These results are consistent with a superconducting gap with an equatorial line node and polar point nodes, a gap symmetry of the D$_{4h}$ point group, for which magnetic field along the tetragonal plane breaks the degeneracy of the multi-component order parameter and induces a phase transition with nodal topology change.