Nodeless superconductivity in the centro- and noncentrosymmetric rhenium-boron superconductors

Abstract

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 $H_{c2}(T)$, 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.

9 pages, 6 figures, accepted by Phys. Rev. B

References in corpus (24)

• Quantum ESPRESSO: a modular and open-source software project for quantum simulations of materials
• Advanced capabilities for materials modelling with Quantum ESPRESSO
• Topological Phases of Noncentrosymmetric Superconductors: Edge States, Majorana Fermions, and the Non-Abelian Statistics
• Evidence for time-reversal symmetry breaking in the non-centrosymmetric superconductor LaNiC${}_2$
• Spin Triplet Superconducting State due to Broken Inversion Symmetry in Li_2Pt_3B
• Upper critical field, Hall effect and magnetoresistance in the iron-based layered superconductor LaFeAsO_{0.9}F_{0.1-δ}
• Hall effect and magnetoresistance in the normal state of the superconductor LaO${}_{0.9}$F${}_{0.1-x}$FeAs
• Anomalous Andreev bound state in non-centrosymmetric superconductors
• Superfluid density and specific heat within self-consistent scheme for two-band superconductor
• Dirac Surface States and Nature of Superconductivity in Noncentrosymmetric BiPd
• Multigap superconductivity in sesquicarbides La${}_2$C${}_3$ and Y${}_2$C${}_3$
• Time-reversal symmetry breaking in noncentrosymmetric superconductor Re6Hf:further evidence for unconventional behaviour in the alpha-Mn family of materials
• Comparison of different methods for analyzing $\mu$SR line shapes in the vortex state of type-II superconductors
• Simultaneous Nodal Superconductivity and Time-Reversal Symmetry Breaking in the Noncentrosymmetric Superconductor CaPtAs
• Nodeless superconductivity and time-reversal symmetry breaking in the noncentrosymmetric superconductor Re24Ti5
• Comparative study of the centrosymmetric and non-centrosymmetric superconducting phases of Re3W using muon-spin spectroscopy and heat capacity measurements
• Enhanced $T_c$ and multiband superconductivity in the fully-gapped ReBe${}_{22}$ superconductor
• Nodeless superconductivity and preserved time-reversal symmetry in the noncentrosymmetric Mo3P superconductor
• CaPtAs: a new noncentrosymmetric superconductor
• Two-band superconductivity featuring different anisotropies in the ternary iron silicide Lu${}_2$Fe${}_3$Si${}_5$
• Structure and superconductivity in the binary Re${}_{1-x}$Mo${}_x$ alloys
• Multigap superconductivity in the Mo${}_5$PB${}_2$ boron-phosphorus compound
• Evidence for the coexistence of time-reversal symmetry breaking and Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer-like superconductivity in La${}_7$Pd${}_3$
• Fully gapped superconductivity in centrosymmetric and non-centrosymmetric Re-B compounds probed with $\mu$SR

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Evidence of fully-gapped superconductivity in NbReSi: A combined $\mu$SR and NMR study
• Quantum muon diffusion and the preservation of time-reversal symmetry in the superconducting state of type-I rhenium
• Nodeless superconductivity in the noncentrosymmetric ThIrSi compound
• Machine-learning Guided Search for Phonon-mediated Superconductivity in Boron and Carbon Compounds
• Multiband superconductivity in the topological Kramers nodal-line semimetals
• Helical Topological Superconducting Pairing at Finite Excitation Energies
• Probing the superconducting pairing of the La${}_4$Be${}_{33}$Pt${}_{16}$ alloy via muon-spin spectroscopy
• NbReSi: A Noncentrosymetric Superconductor with Large Upper Critical Field