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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2024
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.09239 |
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| _version_ | 1866915102823809024 |
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| author | Powell, Lewis Kuang, Wenjun Hawkins-Pottier, Gabriel Jalil, Rashid Birkbeck, John Jiang, Ziyi Kim, Minsoo Zou, Yichao Komrakova, Sofiia Haigh, Sarah Timokhin, Ivan Balakrishnan, Geetha Geim, Andre K. Walet, Niels Principi, Alessandro Grigorieva, Irina V. |
| author_facet | Powell, Lewis Kuang, Wenjun Hawkins-Pottier, Gabriel Jalil, Rashid Birkbeck, John Jiang, Ziyi Kim, Minsoo Zou, Yichao Komrakova, Sofiia Haigh, Sarah Timokhin, Ivan Balakrishnan, Geetha Geim, Andre K. Walet, Niels Principi, Alessandro Grigorieva, Irina V. |
| contents | Unconventional superconductivity, where electron pairing does not involve electron-phonon interactions, is often attributed to magnetic correlations in a material. Well known examples include high-T_c cuprates and uranium-based heavy fermion superconductors. Less explored are unconventional superconductors with strong spin-orbit coupling, where interactions between spin-polarised electrons and external magnetic field can result in multiple superconducting phases and field-induced transitions between them, a rare phenomenon in the superconducting state. Here we report a magnetic-field driven phase transition in β-PdBi2, a layered non-magnetic superconductor. Our tunnelling spectroscopy on thin PdBi2 monocrystals incorporated in planar superconductor-insulator-normal metal junctions reveals a marked discontinuity in the superconducting properties with increasing in-plane field, which is consistent with a transition from conventional (s-wave) to nodal pairing. Our theoretical analysis suggests that this phase transition may arise from spin polarisation and spin-momentum locking caused by locally broken inversion symmetry, with p-wave pairing becoming energetically favourable in high fields. Our findings also reconcile earlier predictions of unconventional multigap superconductivity in β-PdBi2 with previous experiments where only a single s-wave gap could be detected. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2411_09239 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Multiphase superconductivity in PdBi2 Powell, Lewis Kuang, Wenjun Hawkins-Pottier, Gabriel Jalil, Rashid Birkbeck, John Jiang, Ziyi Kim, Minsoo Zou, Yichao Komrakova, Sofiia Haigh, Sarah Timokhin, Ivan Balakrishnan, Geetha Geim, Andre K. Walet, Niels Principi, Alessandro Grigorieva, Irina V. Superconductivity Unconventional superconductivity, where electron pairing does not involve electron-phonon interactions, is often attributed to magnetic correlations in a material. Well known examples include high-T_c cuprates and uranium-based heavy fermion superconductors. Less explored are unconventional superconductors with strong spin-orbit coupling, where interactions between spin-polarised electrons and external magnetic field can result in multiple superconducting phases and field-induced transitions between them, a rare phenomenon in the superconducting state. Here we report a magnetic-field driven phase transition in β-PdBi2, a layered non-magnetic superconductor. Our tunnelling spectroscopy on thin PdBi2 monocrystals incorporated in planar superconductor-insulator-normal metal junctions reveals a marked discontinuity in the superconducting properties with increasing in-plane field, which is consistent with a transition from conventional (s-wave) to nodal pairing. Our theoretical analysis suggests that this phase transition may arise from spin polarisation and spin-momentum locking caused by locally broken inversion symmetry, with p-wave pairing becoming energetically favourable in high fields. Our findings also reconcile earlier predictions of unconventional multigap superconductivity in β-PdBi2 with previous experiments where only a single s-wave gap could be detected. |
| title | Multiphase superconductivity in PdBi2 |
| topic | Superconductivity |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.09239 |