Surface and bulk superconductivity at ambient pressure in the Weyl semimetal TaP
| Autor: | van Delft, M. R., Pezzini, S., König, M., Tinnemans, P., Hussey, N. E., Wiedmann, S. |
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| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: | |
| Druh dokumentu: | Working Paper |
| Popis: | The motivation to search for signatures of superconductivity in Weyl semi-metals and other topological phases lies in their potential for hosting exotic phenomena such as nonzero-momentum pairing or the Majorana fermion, a viable candidate for the ultimate realization of a scalable quantum computer. Until now, however, all known reports of superconductivity in Weyl semimetals have arisen through surface contact with a sharp tip, focused ion-beam surface treatment or the application of high pressures. Here, we demonstrate the observation of superconductivity in single crystals, even an as-grown crystal, of the Weyl semi-metal tantalum phosphide (TaP), at ambient pressure. A superconducting transition temperature, $Tc$, varying between 1.7 and 5.3 K, is observed in different samples, both as-grown and microscopic samples processed with focused ion beam (FIB) etching. Our data show that the superconductivity present in the as-grown crystal is inhomogeneous yet exists in the bulk. For samples fabricated with FIB, we observe, in addition to the bulk superconductivity, a second superconducting state that resides on the sample surface. Through measurements of the characteristic fields as a function of temperature and angle, we are able to confirm the dimensionality of the two distinct superconducting phases. Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures |
| Databáze: | arXiv |
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