No Arabic abstract
We present a comprehensive study on superconducting properties of Re$_7$B$_3$ and Re$_3$B through specific heat, magnetic susceptibility, resistivity, and transverse and zero-field muon spin rotation/relaxation ($mu$SR) experiments on polycrystalline samples. Re$_7$B$_3$ (T$_C$ = 3.2~K) is a non-centrosymmetric type-II ($kappa$ $approx$ 9.27) superconductor in the weak coupling ($lambda_{e-ph}$ = 0.54) regime. On the other hand, Re$_3$B (T$_C$ = 5.19~K) is a centrosymmetric type-II ($kappa$ $approx$ 34.55) superconductor in the moderate coupling ($lambda_{e-ph}$ = 0.64) regime. Our transverse-field $mu$SR measurements show evidence for isotropically gapped BCS type superconductivity with normalized gap ($Delta_0/k_BT_C$) values of 1.69 (Re$_7$B$_3$) and 1.75 (Re$_3$B).
We report the discovery of superconductivity in pressurized CeRhGe3, until now the only remaining non-superconducting member of the isostructural family of non-centrosymmetric heavy-fermion compounds CeTX3 (T = Co, Rh, Ir and X = Si, Ge). Superconductivity appears in CeRhGe3 at a pressure of 19.6 GPa and the transition temperature Tc reaches a maximum value of 1.3 K at 21.5 GPa. This finding provides an opportunity to establish systematic correlations between superconductivity and materials properties within this family. Though ambient-pressure unit-cell volumes and critical pressures for superconductivity vary substantially across the series, all family members reach a maximum Tcmax at a common critical cell volume Vcrit, and Tcmax at Vcrit increases with increasing spin-orbit coupling strength of the d-electrons. These correlations show that substantial Kondo hybridization and spin-orbit coupling favor superconductivity in this family, the latter reflecting the role of broken centro-symmetry.
In the recently discovered antiperovskite phosphide (Ca,Sr)Pd$_3$P, centrosymmetric (CS) and non-centrosymmetric (NCS) superconducting phases appear depending on the Sr concentration, and their transition temperatures ($T_mathrm{c}$) differ by as much as one order of magnitude. In this study, we investigated the superconducting properties and electronic band structures of CS orthorhombic (CSo) (Ca$_{0.6}$Sr$_{0.4}$)Pd$_3$P ($T_mathrm{c}$ = 3.5 K) and NCS tetragonal (NCSt) (Ca$_{0.25}$Sr$_{0.75}$)Pd$_3$P ($T_mathrm{c}$ = 0.32 K) samples with a focus on explaining their large $T_mathrm{c}$ difference. Specific heat measurements indicated that CSo (Ca$_{0.6}$Sr$_{0.4}$)Pd$_3$P was an s-wave superconductor in a moderate-coupling regime with a 2$Delta$$_0$/k$_B$$T_mathrm{c}$ value of 4.0. Low-lying phonons leading to the strong coupling in the structurally analogous SrPt$_3$P were unlikely to be present in CSo (Ca$_{0.6}$Sr$_{0.4}$)Pd$_3$P. Given that CSo (Ca$_{0.6}$Sr$_{0.4}$)Pd$_3$P and NCSt (Ca$_{0.25}$Sr$_{0.75}$)Pd$_3$P exhibited similar Debye temperatures ($Theta$$_D$) of approximately 200 K, the large $T_mathrm{c}$ difference could not be attributed to $Theta$$_D$.$T_mathrm{c}$ of each phase was accurately reproduced based on the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) theory using experimental data and the density of states of the Fermi level $N$(0) calculated from their band structures. We concluded that the considerable suppression of $T_mathrm{c}$ in NCSt (Ca$_{0.25}$Sr$_{0.75}$)Pd$_3$P can be primarily attributed to the decrease in $N$(0) associated with the structural phase transition without considering the lack of inversion symmetry.
We report measurements of the temperature dependence of the magnetic penetration depth lambda(T) in non-centrosymmetric superconductor Re_3W. We employed two experimental techniques: extraction of lambda(T) from magnetic {em dc}-susceptibility, measured on a powder sample, and the rf tunnel diode resonator technique, where a bulk polycrystalline sample was used. The results of both techniques agree: the temperature dependence of the penetration depth can be well described by weak-coupling, dirty-limit, s-wave BCS theory where we obtain $Delta(0)/k_BT_C=1.76$. No evidence for unconventional pairing resulting from the absence of the inversion symmetry is found.
Superconductivity and magnetism in the non-centrosymmetric heavy fermion compound CePt$_3$Si and related materials are theoretically investigated. Based on the randam phase approximation (RPA) analysis for the extended Hubbard model we describe the helical spin fluctuation induced by the Rashba-type anti-symmetric spin-orbit coupling and identify the two stable superconducting phases with either dominantly p-wave ($s$ + $P$-wave) or d-wave ($p$ + $D$ + $f$-wave) symmetry. The influcnce of the coexistent anti-ferromagnetic order is investigated in both states. The SC order parameter, quasiparticle density of state, NMR $1/T_{1}T$, specific heat, anisotropy of $H_{rm c2}$ and possible multiple phase transitions are discussed in details. The comparison with experimental results indicates that the $s$ + $P$-wave superconducting state is likely realized in CePt$_3$Si.
Electrical resistivity, specific heat and NMR measurements classify non-centrosymmetric $rm Mo_3Al_2C$ ($beta$-Mn type, space group $P4_132$) as a strong-coupled superconductor with $T_c = 9$~K deviating notably from BCS-like behaviour. The absence of a Hebbel-Slichter peak, a power law behaviour of the spin-lattice relaxation rate (from $^{27}$Al NMR), a $T^3$ temperature dependence of the specific heat and a pressure enhanced $T_c$ suggest unconventional superconductivity with a nodal structure of the superconducting gap. Relativistic DFT calculations reveal a splitting of degenerate electronic bands due to the asymmetric spin-orbit coupling, favouring a mix of spin-singlet and spin triplet components in the superconducting condensate, in absence of strong correlations among electrons.