We have examined the superconducting ground state properties of the caged type compound Sc5Rh6Sn18 using magnetization, heat capacity, and muon-spin relaxation or rotation (μSR) measurements. Magnetization measurements indicate type-II superconductivity with an upper critical field μ0Hc2(0) = 7.24 T. The zero-field cooled and field cooled susceptibility measurements unveil an onset of diamagnetic signal below Tc = 4.4 K. The interpretation of the heat capacity results below Tc using the α−BCS model unveils the value of α = 2.65, which gives the dimensionless ratio 2Δ(0)/kBTc = 5.3, intimating that Sc5Rh6Sn18 is a strong-coupling BCS superconductor. The zero-field μSR measurements in the longitudinal geometry exhibit a signature of a spontaneous appearance of the internal magnetic field below the superconducting transition temperature, indicating that the superconducting state is characterized by the broken time-reversal symmetry (TRS). We have compared the results of broken TRS in Sc5Rh6Sn18 with that observed in R5Rh6Sn18 (R = Lu and Y).
@article{arxiv.1901.05444,
title = {Unconventional superconductivity in the cage type compound Sc$_5$Rh$_6$Sn$_{18}$},
author = {A. Bhattacharyya and D. T. Adroja and N. Kase and A. D. Hillier and A. M. Strydom and J. Akimitsu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1901.05444},
year = {2019}
}
Comments
6 pages, 4 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1411.6877