No Arabic abstract
Quantum materials having Dirac fermions in conjunction with superconductivity is believed to be the candidate materials to realize exotic physics as well as advanced technology. Angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), a direct probe of the electronic structure, has been extensively used to study these materials. However, experiments often exhibit conflicting results on dimensionality and momentum of the Dirac Fermions (e.g. Dirac states in BiPd, a novel non-centrosymmetric superconductor), which is crucial for the determination of the symmetry, time-reversal invariant momenta and other emerging properties. Employing high-resolution ARPES at varied conditions, we demonstrated a methodology to identify the location of the Dirac node accurately and discover that the deviation from two-dimensionality of the Dirac states in BiPd proposed earlier is not a material property. These results helped to reveal the topology of the anisotropy of the Dirac states accurately. We have constructed a model Hamiltonian considering higher-order spin-orbit terms and demonstrate that this model provides an excellent description of the observed anisotropy. Intriguing features of the Dirac states in a non-centrosymmetric superconductor revealed in this study expected to have significant implication in the properties of topological superconductors.
We report synthesis of non-centrosymmetric BiPd single crystal by self flux method. The BiPd single crystal is crystallized in monoclinic structure with the P21 space group. Detailed SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy) results show that the crystals are formed in slab like morphology with homogenous distribution of Bi and Pd. The magnetic susceptibility measurement confirmed that the BiPd compound is superconducting below 4K. Further, BiPd exhibits weak ferromagnetism near the superconducting transition temperature in isothermal magnetization (MH) measurements. The temperature dependent electrical resistivity also confirmed that the BiPd single crystal is superconducting at Tc=4K. Magneto transport measurements showed that the estimated Hc2(0) value is around 7.0kOe. We also obtained a sharp peak in heat capacity Cp(T) measurements at below 4K due to superconducting ordering. The normalized specific-heat jump, DC/{gamma}Tc, is 1.52, suggesting the BiPd to be an intermediate BCS coupled superconductor. The pressure dependent electrical resistivity shows the Tc decreases with increasing applied pressure and the obtained dTc/dP is -0.62K/Gpa.
Combining multiple emergent correlated properties such as superconductivity and magnetism within the topological matrix can have exceptional consequences in garnering new and exotic physics. Here, we study the topological surface states from a noncentrosymmetric $alpha$-BiPd superconductor by employing angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) and first principle calculations. We observe that the Dirac surface states of this system have several interesting and unusual properties, compared to other topological surface states. The surface state is strongly anisotropic and the in-plane Fermi velocity varies rigorously on rotating the crystal about the $y$-axis. Moreover, it acquires an unusual band gap as a function of $k_y$, possibly due to hybridization with bulk bands, detected upon varying the excitation energy. Coexistence of all the functional properties, in addition to the unusual surface state characteristics make this an interesting material.
Topological superconductor (TSC) hosting Majorana fermions has been established as a milestone that may shift our scientific trajectory from research to applications in topological quantum computing. Recently, superconducting Pd-Bi binaries have attracted great attention as a possible medium for the TSC phase as a result of their large spin-orbit coupling strength. Here, we report a systematic high-resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) study on the normal state electronic structure of superconducting alpha-PdBi2 (Tc = 1.7 K). Our results show the presence of Dirac states at higher-binding energy with the location of the Dirac point at 1.26 eV below the chemical potential at the zone center. Furthermore, the ARPES data indicate multiple band crossings at the chemical potential, consistent with the metallic behavior of alpha-PdBi2. Our detailed experimental studies are complemented by first-principles calculations, which reveal the presence of surface Rashba states residing in the vicinity of the chemical potential. The obtained results provide an opportunity to investigate the relationship between superconductivity and topology, as well as explore pathways to possible future platforms for topological quantum computing.
We have investigated the superconducting state of the non-centrosymmetric compound Re6Zr using magnetization, heat capacity, and muon-spin relaxation/rotation (muSR) measurements. Re6Zr has a superconducting transition temperature, Tc = 6.75 K. Transverse-field muSR experiments, used to probe the superfluid density, suggest an s-wave character for the superconducting gap. However, zero and longitudinal-field muSR data reveal the presence of spontaneous static magnetic fields below Tc indicating that time-reversal symmetry is broken in the superconducting state and an unconventional pairing mechanism. An analysis of the pairing symmetries identifies the ground states compatible with time-reversal symmetry breaking.
The tunneling characteristics of planar junctions between a normal metal and a non-centrosymmetric superconductor like CePt3Si are examined. It is shown that the superconducting phase with mixed parity can give rise to characteristic zero-bias anomalies in certain junction directions. The origin of these zero-bias anomalies are Andreev bound states at the interface. The tunneling characteristics for different directions allow to test the structure of the parity-mixed pairing state.