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Register a new userConventional Superconductivity in Type II Dirac Semimetal PdTe$_2$
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The transition metal dichalcogenide PdTe$_2$ was recently shown to be a unique system where a type II Dirac semimetallic phase and a superconducting phase co-exist. This observation has led to wide speculation on the possibility of the emergence of an unconventional topological superconducting phase in PdTe$_2$. Here, through direct measurement of the superconducting energy gap by scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS), and temperature and magnetic field evolution of the same, we show that the superconducting phase in PdTe$_2$ is conventional in nature. The superconducting energy gap is measured to be 326 $mu$eV at 0.38 K and it follows a temperature dependence that is well described within the framework of Bardeen-Cooper-Schriefers (BCS) theory of conventional superconductivity. This is surprising because our quantum oscillation measurements confirm that at least one of the bands participating in transport has topologically non-trivial character.
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Type I superconductivity has recently been reported for the Dirac semimetal PdTe$_2$ (Tc approximately 1.6K) with, remarkably, multiple critical fields and a complex phase diagram. Here, measurements of the specific heat utilizing a thermal relaxation technique are presented. Conventional weak-coupling BCS superconductivity is confirmed by examining the temperature dependence of the specific heat in zero field. By probing the latent heat accompanying the superconducting transition, thermodynamic evidence for type I superconductivity is attained. The presence of the intermediate state is observed as a significant broadening of the superconducting transition onto lower temperatures at high fields as well as irreversibility in the specific heat in zero field cooled data at 8.5 mT.
The type-II Dirac semimetal PdTe2 was recently reported to be a type-I superconductor with a superconducting transition temperature Tc = 1.65 K. However, the recent results from tunneling and point contact spectroscopy suggested the unusual state of a mixture of type-I and type-II superconductivity. These contradictory results mean that there is no clear picture of the superconducting phase diagram and warrants a detailed investigation of the superconducting phase. We report here the muon spin rotation and relaxation ($mu$SR) measurements on the superconducting state of the topological Dirac semimetal PdTe2. From $mu$SR measurements, we find that PdTe2 exhibits mixed type-I/type-II superconductivity. Using these results a phase diagram has been determined. In contrast to previous results where local type-II superconductivity persists up to Hc2 = 600 G, we observed that bulk superconductivity is destroyed above 225 G.
Very recently, NiTe2 has been reported to be a type II Dirac semimetal with Dirac nodes near the Fermi surface. Furthermore, it is unveiled that NiTe2 presents the Hall Effect, which is ascribed to orbital magnetoresistance. The physical properties behavior of NiTe2 under high pressure attracts us. In this paper, we investigate the electrical properties of polycrystalline NiTe2 by application of pressure ranging from 3.4GPa to 54.45Gpa. Superconductivity emerges at critical pressure 12GPa with a transition temperature of 3.7K, and Tc reaches its maximum, 6.4 K, at the pressure of 52.8GPa. Comparing with the superconductivity in MoP, we purposed the possibility of topological superconductivity in NiTe2. Two superconductivity transitions are observed with pressure increasing in single crystal.
The superconductor PdTe$_2$ was recently classified as a Type II Dirac semimetal, and advocated to be an improved platform for topological superconductivity. Here we report magnetic and transport measurements conducted to determine the nature of the superconducting phase. Surprisingly, we find that PdTe$_2$ is a Type I superconductor with $T_c = 1.64$ K and a critical field $mu_0 H_c (0) = 13.6$ mT. Our crystals also exhibit the intermediate state as demonstrated by the differential paramagnetic effect. For $H > H_c$ we observe superconductivity of the surface sheath. This calls for a close examination of superconductivity in PdTe$_2$ in view of the presence of topological surface states.
The type II Dirac semimetal PdTe$_2$ is unique in the family of topological parent materials because it displays a superconducting ground state below 1.7 K. Despite wide speculations on the possibility of an unconventional topological superconducting phase, tunneling and heat capacity measurements revealed that the superconducting phase of PdTe$_2$ follows predictions of the microscopic theory of Bardeen, Cooper and Shriefer (BCS) for conventional superconductors. The superconducting phase in PdTe$_2$ is further interesting because it also displays properties that are characteristics of type-I superconductors and are generally unexpected for binary compounds. Here, from scanning tunneling spectroscopic measurements we show that the surface of PdTe$_2$ displays intrinsic electronic inhomegenities in the normal state which leads to a mixed type I and type II superconducting behaviour along with a spatial distribution of critical fields in the superconducting state. Understanding of the origin of such inhomogeneities may be important for understanding the topological properties of PdTe$_2$ in the normal state.
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