Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Letter
  • Open Access

Superconductivity in the nodal-line compound La3Pt3Bi4

Liang Li1,*, Guo-Xiang Zhi2,*, Qinqing Zhu1, Chunxiang Wu2, Zhihua Yang1, Jianhua Du3, Jinhu Yang1, Bin Chen1, Hangdong Wang1,† et al.

Chao Cao2,4,‡ and Minghu Fang2,5,§

  • 1Hangzhou Key Laboratory of Quantum Matter, School of Physics, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou 311121, China
  • 2Department of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
  • 3Department of Physics, China Jiliang University, Hangzhou 310018, China
  • 4Center for Correlated Matter, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
  • 5Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China

  • *These authors contributed equally to this work.
  • †hdwang@hznu.edu.cn
  • ‡ccao@hznu.edu.cn
  • §mhfang@zju.edu.cn

Phys. Rev. Research 4, L032004 – Published 7 July, 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.4.L032004

Abstract

Owing to the specific topological states in nodal-line semimetals, novel topological superconductivity is expected to emerge in these systems. In this Letter, we demonstrate that La3Pt3Bi4 is a topologically nontrivial nodal-ring semimetal protected by the gliding-mirror symmetry using first-principles calculations. Meanwhile, we discover bulk superconductivity with a transition temperature of ∼1.1 K and an upper critical field of ∼0.41 T by means of resistivity, susceptibility, and specific heat measurements. These findings demonstrate that La3Pt3Bi4 provides a material platform for studying novel superconductivity in the nodal-ring system.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

References (49)

  1. Y. S. Hor, A. J. Williams, J. G. Checkelsky, P. Roushan, J. Seo, Q. Xu, H. W. Zandbergen, A. Yazdani, N. P. Ong, and R. J. Cava, Superconductivity in CuxBi2Se3 and Its Implications for Pairing in the Undoped Topological Insulator, Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 057001 (2010).
  2. T. Kawai, C. Wang, Y. Kandori, Y. Honoki, K. Matano, T. Kambe, and G.-q. Zheng, Direction and symmetry transition of the vector order parameter in topological superconductors CuxBi2Se3, Nat. Commun. 11, 235 (2020).
  3. S. Yonezawa, K. Tajiri, S. Nakata, Y. Nagai, Z. Wang, K. Segawa, Y. Ando, and Y. Maeno, Thermodynamic evidence for nematic superconductivity in CuxBi2Se3, Nat. Phys. 13, 123 (2017).
  4. S. Sasaki, M. Kriener, K. Segawa, K. Yada, Y. Tanaka, M. Sato, and Y. Ando, Topological Superconductivity in CuxBi2Se3, Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 217001 (2011).
  5. R. Tao, Y.-J. Yan, X. Liu, Z.-W. Wang, Y. Ando, Q.-H. Wang, T. Zhang, and D.-L. Feng, Direct Visualization of the Nematic Superconductivity in CuxBi2Se3, Phys. Rev. X 8, 041024 (2018).
  6. X.-L. Qi and S.-C. Zhang, Topological insulators and superconductors, Rev. Mod. Phys. 83, 1057 (2011).
  7. A. P. Mackenzie and Y. Maeno, The superconductivity of Sr2RuO4 and the physics of spin-triplet pairing, Rev. Mod. Phys. 75, 657 (2003).
  8. A. Pustogow, Y. Luo, A. Chronister, Y.-S. Su, D. Sokolov, F. Jerzembeck, A. P. Mackenzie, C. W. Hicks, N. Kikugawa, S. Raghu, E. D. Bauer, and S. E. Brown, Constraints on the superconducting order parameter in Sr2RuO4 from oxygen-17 nuclear magnetic resonance, Nature (London) 574, 72 (2019).
  9. L. Fu and C. L. Kane, Superconducting Proximity Effect and Majorana Fermions at the Surface of a Topological Insulator, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 096407 (2008).
  10. J. R. Williams, A. J. Bestwick, P. Gallagher, S. S. Hong, Y. Cui, A. S. Bleich, J. G. Analytis, I. R. Fisher, and D. Goldhaber-Gordon, Unconventional Josephson Effect in Hybrid Superconductor-Topological Insulator Devices, Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 056803 (2012).
  11. M.-X. Wang, C. Liu, J.-P. Xu, F. Yang, L. Miao, M.-Y. Yao, C. Gao, C. Shen, X. Ma, X. Chen, Z.-A. Xu, Y. Liu, S.-C. Zhang, D. Qian, J.-F. Jia, and Q.-K. Xue, The coexistence of superconductivity and topological order in the Bi2Se3 thin films, Science 336, 52 (2012).
  12. F. Yang, F. Qu, J. Shen, Y. Ding, J. Chen, Z. Ji, G. Liu, J. Fan, C. Yang, L. Fu, and L. Lu, Proximity-effect-induced superconducting phase in the topological insulator Bi2Se3, Phys. Rev. B 86, 134504 (2012).
  13. M. H. Fang, H. M. Pham, B. Qian, T. J. Liu, E. K. Vehstedt, Y. Liu, L. Spinu, and Z. Q. Mao, Superconductivity close to magnetic instability in Fe(Se1−xTex)0.82, Phys. Rev. B 78, 224503 (2008).
  14. Z. Wang, P. Zhang, G. Xu, L. K. Zeng, H. Miao, X. Xu, T. Qian, H. Weng, P. Richard, A. V. Fedorov, H. Ding, X. Dai, and Z. Fang, Topological nature of the FeSe0.5Te0.5 superconductor, Phys. Rev. B 92, 115119 (2015).
  15. M. Sakano, K. Okawa, M. Kanou, H. Sanjo, T. Okuda, T. Sasagawa, and K. Ishizaka, Topologically protected surface states in a centrosymmetric superconductor β−PdBi2, Nat. Commun. 6, 8595 (2015).
  16. Y. Fang, J. Pan, D. Zhang, D. Wang, H. T. Hirose, T. Terashima, S. Uji, Y. Yuan, W. Li, Z. Tian, J. Xue, Y. Ma, W. Zhao, Q. Xue, G. Mu, H. Zhang, and F. Huang, Discovery of superconductivity in 2MWS2 with possible topological surface states, Adv. Mater. 31, 1901942 (2019).
  17. A. A. Burkov, M. D. Hook, and L. Balents, Topological nodal semimetals, Phys. Rev. B 84, 235126 (2011).
  18. H. Weng, X. Dai, and Z. Fang, Topological semimetals predicted from first-principles calculations, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 28, 303001 (2016).
  19. T. Bzdušek, Q. Wu, A. Rüegg, M. Sigrist, and A. A. Soluyanov, Nodal-chain metals, Nature (London) 538, 75 (2016).
  20. Y. Kim, B. J. Wieder, C. L. Kane, and A. M. Rappe, Dirac Line Nodes in Inversion-Symmetric Crystals, Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 036806 (2015).
  21. Y. Huh, E.-G. Moon, and Y. B. Kim, Long-range Coulomb interaction in nodal-ring semimetals, Phys. Rev. B 93, 035138 (2016).
  22. M. Hirayama, R. Okugawa, T. Miyake, and S. Murakami, Topological Dirac nodal lines and surface charges in fcc alkaline earth metals, Nat. Commun. 8, 14022 (2017).
  23. S. T. Ramamurthy and T. L. Hughes, Quasitopological electromagnetic response of line-node semimetals, Phys. Rev. B 95, 075138 (2017).
  24. G. Bian, T.-R. Chang, R. Sankar, S.-Y. Xu, H. Zheng, T. Neupert, C.-K. Chiu, S.-M. Huang, G. Chang, I. Belopolski, D. S. Sanchez, M. Neupane, N. Alidoust, C. Liu, B. Wang, C.-C. Lee, H.-T. Jeng, C. Zhang, Z. Yuan, S. Jia et al., Topological nodal-line fermions in spin-orbit metal PbTaSe2, Nat. Commun. 7, 10556 (2016).
  25. H. Shapourian, Y. Wang, and S. Ryu, Topological crystalline superconductivity and second-order topological superconductivity in nodal-loop materials, Phys. Rev. B 97, 094508 (2018).
  26. C. Fang, Y. Chen, H.-Y. Kee, and L. Fu, Topological nodal line semimetals with and without spin-orbital coupling, Phys. Rev. B 92, 081201(R) (2015).
  27. M. N. Ali, Q. D. Gibson, T. Klimczuk, and R. J. Cava, Noncentrosymmetric superconductor with a bulk three-dimensional Dirac cone gapped by strong spin-orbit coupling, Phys. Rev. B 89, 020505(R) (2014).
  28. A. Yamakage, Y. Yamakawa, Y. Tanaka, and Y. Okamoto, Line-node Dirac semimetal and topological insulating phase in noncentrosymmetric pnictides CaAgX (X = P, As), J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 85, 013708 (2016).
  29. J.-M. Carter, V. V. Shankar, M. A. Zeb, and H.-Y. Kee, Semimetal and topological insulator in perovskite iridates, Phys. Rev. B 85, 115105 (2012).
  30. Y. Chen, Y.-M. Lu, and H.-Y. Kee, Topological crystalline metal in orthorhombic perovskite iridates, Nat. Commun. 6, 6593 (2015).
  31. Q.-F. Liang, J. Zhou, R. Yu, Z. Wang, and H. Weng, Node-surface and node-line fermions from nonsymmorphic lattice symmetries, Phys. Rev. B 93, 085427 (2016).
  32. Y. Sun, Y. Zhang, C.-X. Liu, C. Felser, and B. Yan, Dirac nodal lines and induced spin Hall effect in metallic rutile oxides, Phys. Rev. B 95, 235104 (2017).
  33. A. Ikeda, M. Kawaguchi, S. Koibuchi, T. Hashimoto, T. Kawakami, S. Yonezawa, M. Sato, and Y. Maeno, Superconductivity in the nonsymmorphic line-nodal compound CaSb2, Phys. Rev. Materials 4, 041801(R) (2020).
  34. S. Dzsaber, L. Prochaska, A. Sidorenko, G. Eguchi, R. Svagera, M. Waas, A. Prokofiev, Q. Si, and S. Paschen, Kondo Insulator to Semimetal Transformation Tuned by Spin-Orbit Coupling, Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 246601 (2017).
  35. C. Cao, G.-X. Zhi, and J.-X. Zhu, From Trivial Kondo Insulator Ce3Pt3Bi4 to Topological Nodal-Line Semimetal Ce3Pd3Bi4, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 166403 (2020).
  36. T. Palewski and W. Suski, Pnictides and Chalcogenides II (Ternary Lanthanide Pnictides), Part b: 1:2:2, 1:4:12, 3:3:4, and Other Type Compounds, (Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2003).
  37. G. H. Kwei, J. M. Lawrence, P. C. Canfield, W. P. Beyermann, J. D. Thompson, Z. Fisk, A. C. Lawson, and J. A. Goldstone, Thermal expansion of Ce3Bi4Pt3 at ambient and high pressures, Phys. Rev. B 46, 8067 (1992).
  38. M. F. Hundley, P. C. Canfield, J. D. Thompson, Z. Fisk, and J. M. Lawrence, Hybridization gap in Ce3Bi4Pt3, Phys. Rev. B 42, 6842 (1990).
  39. M. Hundley, A. Lacerda, P. Canfield, J. Thompson, and Z. Fisk, Magnetoresistance of the Kondo insulator Ce3Bi4Pt3, Phys. B: Condens. Matter 186-188, 425 (1993).
  40. T. Pietrus, H. v. Löhneysen, and P. Schlottmann, Kondo-hole conduction in the La-doped Kondo insulator Ce3Bi4Pt3, Phys. Rev. B 77, 115134 (2008).
  41. G. Kresse and J. Hafner, Ab initio molecular dynamics for liquid metals, Phys. Rev. B 47, 558 (1993).
  42. G. Kresse and D. Joubert, From ultrasoft pseudopotentials to the projector augmented-wave method, Phys. Rev. B 59, 1758 (1999).
  43. P. E. Blöchl, Projector augmented-wave method, Phys. Rev. B 50, 17953 (1994).
  44. J. P. Perdew, K. Burke, and M. Ernzerhof, Generalized Gradient Approximation Made Simple, Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 3865 (1996).
  45. I. Souza, N. Marzari, and D. Vanderbilt, Maximally localized Wannier functions for entangled energy bands, Phys. Rev. B 65, 035109 (2001).
  46. A. A. Mostofi, J. R. Yates, Y.-S. Lee, I. Souza, D. Vanderbilt, and N. Marzari, Wannier90: A tool for obtaining maximally-localised Wannier functions, Comput. Phys. Commun. 178, 685 (2008).
  47. G.-X. Zhi, C. Xu, S.-Q. Wu, F. Ning, and C. Cao, WannSymm: A symmetry analysis code for Wannier orbitals, Comput. Phys. Commun. 271, 108196 (2022).
  48. Q. Wu, S. Zhang, H.-F. Song, M. Troyer, and A. A. Soluyanov, WannierTools: An open-source software package for novel topological materials, Comput. Phys. Commun. 224, 405 (2018).
  49. G. Goll, M. Marz, A. Hamann, T. Tomanic, K. Grube, T. Yoshino, and T. Takabatake, Thermodynamic and transport properties of the non-centrosymmetric superconductor LaBiPt, Phys. B: Condens. Matter 403, 1065 (2008).

Outline

Information

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation