Evidence for Point Nodes in the Superconducting Gap Function in the Filled Skutterudite Heavy-Fermion Compound PrOs4Sb12: 123Sb-NQR Study under Pressure

Abstract

We report ${}^{123}$Sb nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) measurements of the filled skutterudite heavy-fermion superconductor PrOs${}_4$Sb${}_{12}$ under high pressures of 1.91 and 2.34 GPa. The temperature dependence of NQR frequency and the spin-lattice relaxation rate $1/T_1$ indicate that the crystal-electric-field splitting ${\Delta }_{\mathrm{CEF}}$ between the ground state ${\Gamma }_1$ singlet and the first excited state ${\Gamma }_4^{(2)}$ triplet decreases with increasing pressure. The 1/$T_1$ below $T_c$ = 1.55 K at $P$ = 1.91 GPa shows a power-law temperature variation and is proportional to $T^5$ at temperatures considerably below $T_c$, which indicates the existence of point nodes in the superconducting gap function. The data can be well fitted by the gap model $\Delta (\theta )={\Delta }_0\sin \theta$ with ${\Delta }_0$ = 3.08$k_{\mathrm{B}}{T}_{\mathrm{c}}$. The relation between the superconductivity and the quadrupole fluctuations associated with the ${\Gamma }_4^{(2)}$ state is discussed.

4pages, 4figures