No Arabic abstract
We report the discovery of superconductivity and detailed normal-state physical properties of RbV3Sb5 single crystals with V kagome lattice. RbV3Sb5 single crystals show a superconducting transition at Tc ~ 0.92 K. Meanwhile, resistivity, magnetization and heat capacity measurements indicate that it exhibits anomalies of properties at T* ~ 102 - 103 K, possibly related to the formation of charge ordering state. When T is lower than T*, the Hall coefficient RH undergoes a drastic change and sign reversal from negative to positive, which can be partially explained by the enhanced mobility of hole-type carriers. In addition, the results of quantum oscillations show that there are some very small Fermi surfaces with low effective mass, consistent with the existence of multiple highly dispersive Dirac band near the Fermi energy level.
The interplay between charge-density-wave (CDW) order and superconductivity (SC) in the Kagome metal RbV3Sb5 is studied by tracking the evolutions of their transition temperatures, T* and Tc, as a function of pressure (P) via measurements of resistivity and magnetic susceptibility under various hydrostatic pressures up to ~ 5 GPa. It is found that the CDW order at T* experiences a subtle modification at Pc1 ~ 1.5 GPa before it is completely suppressed around Pc2 ~ 2.4 GPa. Accordingly, the superconducting transition Tc(P) exhibits a shallow M-shaped double superconducting dome with two extrema of Tconset ~ 4.4 K and 3.9 K around Pc1 and Pc2, respectively, leading to a fourfold enhancement of Tc with respect to that at ambient pressure. The constructed T-P phase diagram of RbV3Sb5 resembles that of CsV3Sb5, and shares similar features as many other unconventional superconducting systems with intertwined competing electronic orders. The strong competition between CDW and SC is also evidenced by the broad superconducting transition width in the coexistent region. Our results shed more light on the intriguing physics involving intertwined electronic orders in this novel topological kagome metal family.
Understanding the competition between superconductivity and other ordered states (such as antiferromagnetic or charge-density-wave (CDW) state) is a central issue in condensed matter physics. The recently discovered layered kagome metal AV3Sb5 (A = K, Rb, and Cs) provides us a new playground to study the interplay of superconductivity and CDW state by involving nontrivial topology of band structures. Here, we conduct high-pressure electrical transport and magnetic susceptibility measurements to study CsV3Sb5 with the highest Tc of 2.7 K in AV3Sb5 family. While the CDW transition is monotonically suppressed by pressure, superconductivity is enhanced with increasing pressure up to P1~0.7 GPa, then an unexpected suppression on superconductivity happens until pressure around 1.1 GPa, after that, Tc is enhanced with increasing pressure again. The CDW is completely suppressed at a critical pressure P2~2 GPa together with a maximum Tc of about 8 K. In contrast to a common dome-like behavior, the pressure-dependent Tc shows an unexpected double-peak behavior. The unusual suppression of Tc at P1 is concomitant with the rapidly damping of quantum oscillations, sudden enhancement of the residual resistivity and rapid decrease of magnetoresistance. Our discoveries indicate an unusual competition between superconductivity and CDW state in pressurized kagome lattice.
Single crystals of the compound LaFePO were prepared using a flux growth technique at high temperatures. Electrical resistivity measurements reveal metallic behavior and a resistive transition to the superconducting state at a critical temperature T_c ~ 6.6 K. Magnetization measurements also show the onset of superconductivity near 6 K. In contrast, specific heat measurements manifest no discontinuity at T_c. These results lend support to the conclusion that the superconductivity is associated with oxygen vacancies that alter the carrier concentration in a small fraction of the sample, although superconductivity characterized by an unusually small gap value can not be ruled-out. Under applied magnetic fields, T_c is suppressed anisotropically for fields perpendicular and parallel to the ab-plane, suggesting that the crystalline anisotropy strongly influences the superconducting state. Preliminary high-pressure measurements show that T_c passes through a maximum of nearly 14 K at ~ 110 kbar, demonstrating that significantly higher T_c values may be achieved in the phosphorus-based oxypnictides.
Recently superconductivity was discovered in the Kagome metal AV3Sb5 (A = K, Rb, and Cs), which has an ideal Kagome lattice of vanadium. These V-based superconductors also host charge density wave (CDW) and topological nontrivial band structure. Here we report the ultralow-temperature thermal conductivity and high pressure resistance measurements on CsV3Sb5 with Tc = 2.5 K, the highest among AV3Sb5. A finite residual linear term of thermal conductivity at zero magnetic field and its rapid increase in fields suggest nodal superconductivity. By applying pressure, the Tc of CsV3Sb5 increases first, then decreases to lower than 0.3 K at 11.4 GPa, showing a clear first superconducting dome peaked around 0.8 GPa. Above 11.4 GPa, superconductivity re-emerges, suggesting a second superconducting dome. Both nodal superconductivity and superconducting domes point to unconventional superconductivity in this V-based superconductor. While our finding of nodal superconductivity puts a strong constrain on the pairing state of the first dome, which should be related to the CDW instability, the superconductivity of the second dome may present another exotic pairing state in this ideal Kagome lattice of vanadium.
Recently V-based Kagome metal attracted intense attention due to the emergence of superconductivity in the low temperature. Here we report the fabrication and physical investigations of the high quality single-crystalline thin films of the Kagome metal KV$_3$Sb$_5$. For the sample with the thickness of about 15 nm, the temperature dependent resistance reveals a Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) type behavior, indicating the presence of two-dimensional superconductivity. Compared with the bulk sample, the onset transition temperature $T^{onset}_{c}$ and the out-of-plane upper critical field $H_{c2}$ are enhanced by 15% and more than 10 times respectively. Moreover, the zero-resistance state is destroyed by a magnetic field as low as 50 Oe. Meanwhile, the temperature-independent resistance is observed in a wide field region, which is the hallmark of quantum metallic state. Our results provide evidences for the existence of unconventional superconductivity in this material.