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<p>Unconventional superconductivity, where electron pairing does not involve electron-phonon interactions, is often attributed to magnetic correlations in a material. Well known examples include high-<i>T</i><sub><i>c</i></sub> cuprates and uranium-based heavy fermion superconductors. Less explored are unconventional superconductors with strong spin-orbit coupling, where interactions between spin-polarised electrons and external magnetic field can result in multiple superconducting phases and field-induced transitions between them, a rare phenomenon in the superconducting state. Here we report a magnetic-field driven phase transition in β-PdBi<sub>2</sub>, a layered non-magnetic superconductor. Our tunnelling spectroscopy on thin PdBi<sub>2</sub> monocrystals incorporated in planar superconductor-insulator-normal metal junctions reveals a marked discontinuity in the superconducting properties with increasing in-plane field, which is consistent with a transition from conventional (s-wave) to nodal pairing. Our theoretical analysis suggests that this phase transition may arise from spin polarisation and spin-momentum locking caused by locally broken inversion symmetry, with p-wave pairing becoming energetically favourable in high fields. Our findings also reconcile earlier predictions of unconventional multigap superconductivity in β-PdBi<sub>2</sub> with previous experiments where only a single s-wave gap could be detected.</p>

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Multiphase superconductivity in PdBi2

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

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  • 发表日期：

    2025年1月2日

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  • Lewis Powell,
  • Wenjun Kuang,
  • Gabriel Hawkins-Pottier,
  • Rashid Jalil,
  • John Birkbeck,
  • Ziyi Jiang,
  • Minsoo Kim,
  • Yichao Zou,
  • Sofiia Komrakova,
  • Sarah Haigh,
  • Ivan Timokhin,
  • Geetha Balakrishnan,
  • Andre K. Geim,
  • Niels Walet,
  • Alessandro Principi,
  • Irina V. Grigorieva

摘要

Unconventional superconductivity, where electron pairing does not involve electron-phonon interactions, is often attributed to magnetic correlations in a material. Well known examples include high-Tc cuprates and uranium-based heavy fermion superconductors. Less explored are unconventional superconductors with strong spin-orbit coupling, where interactions between spin-polarised electrons and external magnetic field can result in multiple superconducting phases and field-induced transitions between them, a rare phenomenon in the superconducting state. Here we report a magnetic-field driven phase transition in β-PdBi2, a layered non-magnetic superconductor. Our tunnelling spectroscopy on thin PdBi2 monocrystals incorporated in planar superconductor-insulator-normal metal junctions reveals a marked discontinuity in the superconducting properties with increasing in-plane field, which is consistent with a transition from conventional (s-wave) to nodal pairing. Our theoretical analysis suggests that this phase transition may arise from spin polarisation and spin-momentum locking caused by locally broken inversion symmetry, with p-wave pairing becoming energetically favourable in high fields. Our findings also reconcile earlier predictions of unconventional multigap superconductivity in β-PdBi2 with previous experiments where only a single s-wave gap could be detected.