No Arabic abstract
We report a comprehensive study of the noncentrosymmetric superconductor Mo$_3$P. Its bulk superconductivity, with $T_c = 5.5$ K, was characterized via electrical resistivity, magnetization, and heat-capacity measurements, while its microscopic electronic properties were investigated by means of muon-spin rotation/relaxation ($mu$SR) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques. In the normal state, NMR relaxation data indicate an almost ideal metallic behavior, confirmed by band-structure calculations, which suggest a relatively high electron density of states, dominated by the Mo $4d$-orbitals. The low-temperature superfluid density, determined via transverse-field $mu$SR and electronic specific heat, suggest a fully-gapped superconducting state in Mo$_3$P, with $Delta_0= 0.83$ meV, the same as the BCS gap value in the weak-coupling case, and a zero-temperature magnetic penetration depth $lambda_0 = 126$ nm. The absence of spontaneous magnetic fields below the onset of superconductivity, as determined from zero-field $mu$SR measurements, indicates a preserved time-reversal symmetry in the superconducting state of Mo$_3$P and, hence, spin-singlet pairing.
The noncentrosymmetric superconductor Re$_{24}$Ti$_{5}$, a time-reversal symmetry (TRS) breaking candidate with $T_c = 6$,K, was studied by means of muon-spin rotation/relaxation ($mu$SR) and tunnel-diode oscillator (TDO) techniques. At a macroscopic level, its bulk superconductivity was investigated via electrical resistivity, magnetic susceptibility, and heat capacity measurements. The low-temperature penetration depth, superfluid density and electronic heat capacity all evidence an $s$-wave coupling with an enhanced superconducting gap. The spontaneous magnetic fields revealed by zero-field $mu$SR below $T_c$ indicate a time-reversal symmetry breaking and thus the unconventional nature of superconductivity in Re$_{24}$Ti$_{5}$. The concomitant occurrence of TRS breaking also in the isostructural Re$_6$(Zr,Hf) compounds, hints at its common origin in this superconducting family and that an enhanced spin-orbital coupling does not affect pairing symmetry.
We report the single-crystal synthesis and detailed investigations of the cage-type superconductor Sc5Ru6Sn18, using powder x-ray diffraction (XRD), magnetization, specific-heat and muon-spin relaxation (muSR) measurements. Sc5Ru6Sn18 crystallizes in a tetragonal structure (space group I41/acd) with the lattice parameters a = 1.387(3) nm and c = 2.641(5) nm. Both DC and AC magnetization measurements prove the type-II superconductivity in Sc5Ru6Sn18 with Tc = 3.5(1) K, a lower critical field H_c1 (0) = 157(9) Oe and an upper critical field, H_c2 (0) = 26(1) kOe. The zero-field electronic specific-heat data are well fitted using a single-gap BCS model, with superconducting gap = 0.64(1) meV. The Sommerfeld constant varies linearly with the applied magnetic field, indicating s-wave superconductivity in Sc5Ru6Sn18. Specific-heat and transverse-field (TF) muSR measurements reveal that Sc5Ru6Sn18 is a superconductor with strong electron-phonon coupling, with TF-muSR also suggesting the single-gap s-wave character of the superconductivity. Furthermore, zero-field muSR measurements do not detect spontaneous magnetic fields below Tc, hence implying that time-reversal symmetry is preserved in Sc5Ru6Sn18.
We report a comprehensive study of the centrosymmetric Re$_3$B and noncentrosymmetric Re$_7$B$_3$ superconductors. At a macroscopic level, their bulk superconductivity (SC), with $T_c$ = 5.1 K (Re$_3$B) and 3.3 K (Re$_7$B$_3$), was characterized via electrical-resistivity, magnetization, and heat-capacity measurements, while their microscopic superconducting properties were investigated by means of muon-spin rotation/relaxation ($mu$SR). In both Re$_3$B and Re$_7$B$_3$ the low-$T$ zero-field electronic specific heat and the superfluid density (determined via tranverse-field $mu$SR) suggest a nodeless SC. Both compounds exhibit some features of multigap SC, as evidenced by temperature-dependent upper critical fields $H_mathrm{c2}(T)$, as well as by electronic band-structure calculations. The absence of spontaneous magnetic fields below the onset of SC, as determined from zero-field $mu$SR measurements, indicates a preserved time-reversal symmetry in the superconducting state of both Re$_3$B and Re$_7$B$_3$. Our results suggest that a lack of inversion symmetry and the accompanying antisymmetric spin-orbit coupling effects are not essential for the occurrence of multigap SC in these rhenium-boron compounds.
We report an investigation of the superconducting properties of the hexagonal noncentrosymmetric compound LaPdIn. Electrical resistivity, specific heat and ac susceptibility measurements demonstrate the presence of bulk superconductivity below $T_c$ = 1.6 K. The specific heat, together with the penetration depth measured using transverse-field muon spin rotation and the tunnel diode oscillator based method, are well described by single gap $s$-wave superconductivity, with a gap magnitude of 1.8$k_BT_c$. From zero-field muon spin relaxation results no evidence is found for the spontaneous emergence of magnetic fields in the superconducting state, indicating that time-reversal symmetry is preserved. Band structure calculations reveal that there is a relatively weak effect of antisymmetric spin-orbit coupling on the electronic bands near the Fermi level, which is consistent with there being negligible singlet-triplet mixing due to broken inversion symmetry. On the other hand, isostructural LuPdIn and LaPtIn do not exhibit superconductivity down to 0.4 K, which may be due to these systems having a smaller density of states at the Fermi level.
Fascinating phenomena have been known to arise from the Dirac theory of relativistic quantum mechanics, which describes high energy particles having linear dispersion relations. Electrons in solids usually have non-relativistic dispersion relations but their quantum excitations can mimic relativistic effects. In topological insulators, electrons have both a linear dispersion relation, the Dirac behavior, on the surface and a non-relativistic energy dispersion in the bulk. Topological phases of matter have attracted much interest, particularly broken-symmetry phases in topological insulator materials. Here, we report by Nb doping that the topological insulator Bi2Se3 can be turned into a bulk type-II superconductor while the Dirac surface dispersion in the normal state is preserved. A macroscopic magnetic ordering appears below the superconducting critical temperature of 3.2 K indicating a spontaneous spin rotation symmetry breaking of the Nb magnetic moments. Even though such a magnetic order may appear at the edge of the superconductor, it is mediated by superconductivity and presents a novel phase of matter which gives rise to a zero-field Hall effect.