No Arabic abstract
A feasible strategy to realize the Majorana fermions is searching for a simple compound with both bulk superconductivity and Dirac surface states. In this paper, we performed calculations of electronic band structure, the Fermi surface and surface states, as well as measured the resistivity, magnetization, specific heat for TlSb compound with a CsCl-type structure. The band structure calculations show that TlSb is a Dirac semimetal when spin-orbit coupling is taken into account. Meanwhile, we first found that TlSb is a type-II superconductor with $T_c$ = 4.38 K, $H_{c1}$(0) = 148 Oe, $H_{c2}$(0) = 1.12 T and $kappa_{GL}$ = 10.6, and confirmed it to be a moderately coupled s-wave superconductor. Although we can not determine which bands near the Fermi level $E_F$ to be responsible for superconductivity, its coexistence with the topological surface states implies that TlSb compound may be a simple material platform to realize the fault-tolerant quantum computations.
The Dirac semimetal PdTe$_2$ was recently reported to be a type-I superconductor ($T_c = $1.64 K, $mu_0 H_c (0) = 13.6$ mT) with unusual superconductivity of the surface sheath. We here report a high-pressure study, $p leq 2.5$ GPa, of the superconducting phase diagram extracted from ac-susceptibility and transport measurements on single crystalline samples. $T_c (p)$ shows a pronounced non-monotonous variation with a maximum $T_c = $1.91 K around 0.91 GPa, followed by a gradual decrease to 1.27 K at 2.5 GPa. The critical field of bulk superconductivity in the limit $T rightarrow 0$, $H_c(0,p)$, follows a similar trend and consequently the $H_c(T,p)$-curves under pressure collapse on a single curve: $H_c(T,p)=H_c(0,p)[1-(T/T_c(p))^2]$. Surface superconductivity is robust under pressure as demonstrated by the large superconducting screening signal that persists for applied dc-fields $H_a > H_c$. Surprisingly, for $p geq 1.41$ GPa the superconducting transition temperature at the surface $T_c^S$ is larger than $T_c$ of the bulk. Therefore surface superconductivity may possibly have a non-trivial nature and is connected to the topological surface states detected by ARPES. We compare the measured pressure variation of $T_c$ with recent results from band structure calculations and discuss the importance of a Van Hove singularity.
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 recently discovered Dirac and Weyl semimetals are new members of topological materials. Starting from them, topological superconductivity may be achieved, e.g. by carrier doping or applying pressure. Here we report high-pressure resistance and X-ray diffraction study of the three-dimensional topological Dirac semimetal Cd3As2. Superconductivity with Tc ~ 2.0 K is observed at 8.5 GPa. The Tc keeps increasing to about 4.0 K at 21.3 GPa, then shows a nearly constant pressure dependence up to the highest pressure 50.9 GPa. The X-ray diffraction measurements reveal a structure phase transition around 3.5 GPa. Our observation of superconductivity in pressurized topological Dirac semimetal Cd3As2 provides a new candidate for topological superconductor, as argued in a recent point contact study and a theoretical work.
We predict two topological superconducting phases in microscopic models arising from the Berry phase associated with the valley degree of freedom in gapped Dirac honeycomb systems. The first one is a topological helical spin-triplet superconductor with a nonzero center-of-mass momentum that does not break time-reversal symmetry. We also find a topological chiral-triplet superconductor with Chern number $pm 1$ with equal-spin-pairing in one valley and opposite-spin-triplet pairing in the other valley. Our results are obtained for the Kane-Mele model in which we have explored the effect of three different interactions, onsite attraction $U$, nearest-neighbor density-density attraction $V$, and nearest-neighbor antiferromagnetic exchange $J$, within self-consistent Bogoliubov--de Gennes theory. Transition metal dichalcogenides and cold atom experiments are promising platforms to explore these phases.
Very recent report [1] on observation of superconductivity in Bi4O4S3 could potentially reignite the search for superconductivity in a broad range of layered sulphides. We report here synthesis of Bi4O4S3 at 5000C by vacuum encapsulation technique and basic characterizations. Detailed structural, magnetization, and electrical transport results are reported. Bi4O4S3 is contaminated by small amounts of Bi2S3 and Bi impurities. The majority phase is tetragonal I4/mmm space group with lattice parameters a = 3.9697(2){AA}, c = 41.3520(1){AA}. Both AC and DC magnetization measurements confirmed that Bi4O4S3 is a bulk superconductor with superconducting transition temperature (Tc) of 4.4K. Isothermal magnetization (MH) measurements indicated closed loops with clear signatures of flux pinning and irreversible behavior. The lower critical field (Hc1) at 2K, of the new superconductor is found to be ~39 Oe. The magneto-transport R(T, H) measurements showed a resistive broadening and decrease in Tc (R=0) to lower temperatures with increasing magnetic field. The extrapolated upper critical field Hc2(0) is ~ 310kOe with a corresponding Ginzburg-Landau coherence length of ~100{AA} . In the normal state the {rho} ~ T2 is not indicated. Our magnetization and electrical transport measurements substantiate the appearance of bulk superconductivity in as synthesized Bi4O4S3. On the other hand same temperature heat treated Bi is not superconducting, thus excluding possibility of impurity driven superconductivity in the newly discovered Bi4O4S3 superconductor.