English

Superconductivity in the Superhard Boride WB$_{4.2}$

Superconductivity 2018-10-17 v1

Abstract

We show that the superhard boride WB4.2_{4.2} is a superconductor with a Tc_c of 2.05(5) K. Temperature-dependent magnetic susceptibility, electrical resistivity, and specific heat measurements were used to characterize the superconducting transition. The Sommerfeld constant {\gamma} for WB4.2_{4.2} is 2.07(3) mJ mol1^{-1} K2^{-2} and the {\Delta}C/{\gamma}Tc_c = 1.56, which is somewhat higher than what is expected for weakly coupled BCS type superconductors. The Hc2_{c2} vs T plot is linear over a wide temperature range but does show signs of flattening by the lowest temperatures studied and therefore the zero-temperature upper critical field ({\mu}0_0Hc2_{c2}(0)) for WB4.2_{4.2} lies somewhere between the linear extrapolation of {\mu}0_0Hc2_{c2}(T) to 0 K and expectations based on the WHH model.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1807.02561,
  title  = {Superconductivity in the Superhard Boride WB$_{4.2}$},
  author = {Elizabeth M. Carnicom and Judyta Strychalska-Nowak and Piotr Wiśniewski and Dariusz Kaczorowski and Weiwei Xie and Tomasz Klimczuk and Robert J. Cava},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1807.02561},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

6 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables

R2 v1 2026-06-23T02:53:21.299Z