PrV2Al20 is a rare example of a heavy fermion system based on strong hybridization between conduction electrons and nonmagnetic quadrupolar moments of the cubic Γ3 ground doublet. Here, we report that a high-quality single crystal of PrV2Al20 exhibits superconductivity at Tc= 50 mK in the antiferroquadrupole-ordered state under ambient pressure. The heavy fermion character of the superconductivity is evident from the specific heat jump of ΔC/T∼0.3 J/mol K2 and the effective mass m∗/m0∼140 estimated from the temperature dependence of the upper critical field. Furthermore, the high-quality single crystals exhibit double transitions at TQ = 0.75 K and T∗ = 0.65 K associated with quadrupole and octapole degrees of freedom of the Γ3 doublet. In the ordered state, the specific heat C/T shows a T3 dependence, indicating the gapless mode associated with the quadrupole and/or octapole order. The strong sensitivity to impurity of the superconductivity suggests unconventional character due to significant quadrupolar fluctuations.
@article{arxiv.1407.0866,
title = {Heavy Fermion Superconductivity in the Quadrupole Ordered State of PrV2Al20},
author = {Masaki Tsujimoto and Yosuke Matsumoto and Takahiro Tomita and Akito Sakai and Satoru Nakatsuji},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1407.0866},
year = {2015}
}