Spin-triplet superconductivity in Weyl nodal-line semimetals

Shang, Tian, Ghosh, Sudeep Kumar, Smidman, Michael, Gawryluk, Dariusz Jakub, Baines, Christopher, Wang, An, Xie, Wu, Chen, Ye, Ajeesh, Mukkattu O., Nicklas, Michael, and others. (2022) Spin-triplet superconductivity in Weyl nodal-line semimetals. npj Quantum Materials, 7 . Article Number 35. ISSN 2397-4648. E-ISSN 2397-4648. (doi:10.1038/s41535-022-00442-w) (KAR id:93409)

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41535-022-00442-w

Abstract

Topological semimetals are three dimensional materials with symmetry-protected massless bulk excitations. As a special case, Weyl nodal-line semimetals are realized in materials either having no inversion or broken time-reversal symmetry and feature bulk nodal lines. The 111-family of materials, LaNiSi, LaPtSi and LaPtGe (all lacking inversion symmetry), belong to this class. Here, by combining muon-spin rotation and relaxation with thermodynamic measurements, we find that these materials exhibit a fully-gapped superconducting ground state, while spontaneously breaking time-reversal symmetry at the superconducting transition. Since time-reversal symmetry is essential for protecting the normal-state topology, its breaking upon entering the superconducting state should remarkably result in a topological phase transition. By developing a minimal model for the normal-state band structure and assuming a purely spin-triplet pairing, we show that the superconducting properties across the family can be described accurately. Our results demonstrate that the 111-family reported here provides an ideal test-bed for investigating the rich interplay between the exotic properties of Weyl nodal-line fermions and unconventional superconductivity.

Item Type:	Article
DOI/Identification number:	10.1038/s41535-022-00442-w
Uncontrolled keywords:	Weyl semimetals, superconductors, physics, condensed matter, topology, broken time-reversal symmetry, triplet pairing, theory, experiment, muSR
Subjects:	Q Science > QC Physics > QC176 Solid state physics
Divisions:	Divisions > Division of Natural Sciences > Physics and Astronomy
Funders:	Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (https://ror.org/0439y7842)
Depositing User:	Jorge Quintanilla Tizon
Date Deposited:	24 Feb 2022 22:51 UTC
Last Modified:	04 Jul 2023 11:07 UTC
Resource URI:	https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/93409 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)
Ghosh, Sudeep Kumar:	https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3646-0629
Quintanilla, Jorge:	https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8572-730X

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