Nodeless s-wave superconductivity in the α-Mn structure type noncentrosymmetric superconductor TaOs: A µSR study D. Singh,1 Sajilesh K.P,1 Sourav Marik,1 P.K.Biswas,2 A. D. Hillier,2 and R. P. Singh1, ∗ 1Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Bhopal, Bhopal, 462066, India 2ISIS facility, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Oxfordshire, OX11 0QX, UK (Dated: July 10, 2019) Noncentrosymmetric superconductors can lead to a variety of exotic properties in the supercon- ducting state such as line nodes, multigap behavior, and time-reversal symmetry breaking. In this paper, we report the properties of the new noncentrosymmetric superconductor TaOs, using muon spin relaxation and rotation measurements. It is shown using the zero-field muon experiment that TaOs preserve the time-reversal symmetry in the superconducting state. From the transverse field muon measurements, we extract the temperature dependence of λ(T ) which is proportional to the superfluid density. This data can be fit with a fully gapped s-wave model for α = ∆(0)=kB Tc = 2.01 ± 0.02. Furthermore, the value of magnetic penetration depth is found to be 5919 ± 45 Å, which is consistent with the value obtained from the bulk measurements. I. INTRODUCTION = Ti,Zr,Hf) [28–30], locally noncentrosymmetric SrPtAs [31] and La7Ir3 [32]. This number is very small, if com- Superconductors with lack of spatial inversion symme- pared to the extent of NCS superconductors studied so try in crystal lattice have attracted much attention in far [33–41]. condensed matter physics from both experimental and The intermetallic Re6X-NCS superconductors are of par- theoretical perspective due to their fascinating and un- ticular interest since most of the members in this family usual electronic states [1]. In noncentrosymmetric (NCS) have been found to exhibit TRS breaking in the supercon- superconductors, the relaxed space-symmetry leads to in- ducting state [28–30]. Interestingly, when studied using ternal electric-field gradients and hence to antisymmetric the muon spin rotation/relaxation (µSR) technique, the spin-orbit coupling (ASOC) [2,3], which lifts the two- TRS-breaking effects seems very similar in all the Re6X fold spin degeneracy of the conduction-band electrons, binary alloys. The persistence and independency of the leading to mixed singlet and triplet components. This particular transition metal X, points to a key role-played parity mixing in NCS superconductors instigates a wide by Re. In fact, the recent appearance of TRS breaking variety of unconventional properties. Illustrative exam- in pure centrosymmetric Re indeed suggest that a lack of ples include spin-triplet pairing in Li2(Pd,Pt)3Si [4–6], inversion symmetry is inessential and the local electronic upper critical field close to or exceeding the Pauli limit- structure of Re is crucial for the understanding of TRS ing field in systems such as: CePt3Si [7], K2Cr3As3 [8], breaking in Re6X[42]. One particularly intriguing pro- Nb0:18Re0:82 [9], (Ta, Nb)Rh2B2 [10], and multiple su- posal is that the broken TRS arises in Re6X compounds perconducting gaps in LaNiC2 [11] and (La,Y)2C3 [12]. due to the formation of Loop-Josephson-Current (LJC) Another unique characteristic of the specific complex state built on site, intraorbital, singlet pairing [43]. How- order parameters in noncentrosymmetric superconduc- ever, these recent results pose the more important ques- tors is time-reversal symmetry (TRS) breaking. The tion, which has not yet been resolved, namely why such presence of TRS breaking in a superconductor is very energetics that would drive such state occur only in sys- rare and has been observed only in a very limited num- tems with Re and not in other elements. However, to ber of superconductors e.g. Sr2RuO4 [15, 16], UPt3 truly probe the origin of TRS breaking in Re6X, a sys- [17–19], (U,Th)Be13 [20], (Pr,La)(Os,Ru)4Sb12 [21–23], tematic study of additional noncentrosymmetric super- PrPt4Ge12 [24], LaNiGa2 [25], Y5Rh6Sn18 [26], and conductors families, particularly Re-free α-Mn structure arXiv:1907.03984v1 [cond-mat.supr-con] 9 Jul 2019 Lu5Rh6Sn18 [27]. Noncentrosymmetric superconductors materials, is of great importance. have been recognized as good candidates to search for To this end, we study the binary transition metal com- broken TRS. To date, TRS breaking have been found pound TaOs, which exists in the same space group in NCS superconductors, such as LaNiC2 [11], Re6X (X as Re6X. Superconducting transition in TaOs appears around Tc ' 2.1 K [44]. µSR study of Re-free α-Mn structure TaOS is essential as it provides an excellent opportunity to identify the origin of TRS breaking in the ∗ [email protected] 2 0 . 3 0 . 1 5 0 . 1 K 0 . 1 0 3 . 0 K y y 0 . 2 r 0 . 0 5 r t t e e m m 0 . 0 0 m m y y s s 0 . 1 A - 0 . 0 5 A - 0 . 1 0 0 . 1 K 3 . 0 K 0 . 0 - 0 . 1 5 0 5 1 0 1 5 2 0 0 2 4 6 8 T i m e ( µs ) T i m e ( µs ) FIG. 1. Zero-field µSR spectra collected below (0.1 K) and FIG. 2. Representative TF-µSR signals collected at 3.0 K above (3 K) the superconducting transition temperature. The and 0.1 K in an applied magnetic field of 40 mT. The solid solid lines are the fits to Gaussian Kubo-Toyabe (KT) func- lines are fits using Eq. (2). tion given in Eq. (1). field are cancelled to within ∼ 1.0 µT using three sets of Re X NCS superconductors. Therefore, the supercon- 6 orthogonal coils and an active compensation system. A ducting state of TaOs was examined using the combi- full description of the µSR technique may be found in nation of zero-field muon measurements (ZF-µSR) and [46]. The powdered TaOs sample was mounted on a sil- transverse-field muon measurements (TF-µSR). From ver holder and placed in a sorption cryostat, which we ZF-µSR, we can infer about the state of TRS whereas operated in the temperature range 0.1 K - 4 K. TF-µSR allows estimating the symmetry of supercon- ducting order parameter. III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION II. EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS The preparation of the polycrystalline TaOs sample a. Zero-field muon spin relaxation used in this work is described in Ref.[44]. Powder x-ray diffraction (XRD) data confirm that the sample has the Firstly, time-reversal symmetry breaking was investi- α-Mn crystal structure (space group I-43m No. 217), gated by ZF-µSR, as has been seen in other NCS super- with no impurity phases detected. Magnetization, spe- conductors [11, 28–32]. In superconductors with broken cific heat, and µSR measurements indicate that TaOs is TRS, either the spin or orbital parts of the Cooper pairs a bulk superconductor with Tc = 2.1 ± 0.1 K. The µSR are non-zero, which results in the appearance of the small measurements were performed using the MuSR spec- magnetic field below the transition temperature. µSR trometer at the ISIS pulsed muon facility, STFC Ruther- can measure fields as small as 0.1 G, thus can measure ford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, United Kingdom [45]. the effect of TRS breaking in superconductors. Figure1 In the transverse field mode, an external magnetic field shows the ZF-µSR spectra measured at T = 0.1 K and was applied perpendicular to the muon-spin direction. 3.0 K, well below and above Tc. The absence of preces- The magnetic field was applied above the superconduct- sional signals suggests the absence of coherent internal ing transition temperature of the sample and then cooled fields which is generally associated with long-range mag- it to the base temperature. Muon spin rotates with the netic ordering. There was no apparent change in the applied magnetic field and depolarizes as a consequence relaxation spectra in the superconducting state of TaOs, of magnetic field distribution inside the sample. Data which suggests the absence of spontaneous internal mag- were also collected in zero-field mode, where the muon netic fields. This confirms that time-reversal symmetry spin relaxation is measured with respect to time. In the is preserved in the superconducting state of TaOs. zero-field geometry, the stray fields at the sample position The time evolution of ZF-µSR spectra in the absence of due to neighboring instruments and the Earth’s magnetic atomic moments is best described by the Gaussian Kubo- 3 0.27 400 3 (a) (b) (c) ) 0.18 399 2 Bbg ) -1 -2 s m µ (µ ( sc TaOs < B > -2 σ 0.09 H = 40 mT 398 1 λ Data ∆ (0) = 0.370(3) meV Internal Field (Oe) ∆ (0)/kBTc = 2.01 0.00 397 0 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 Temperature (K) Temperature (K) Temperature (K) FIG. 3. (a) Temperature dependence of σsc collected at an applied field of 40 mT. (b) Temperature dependence of the internal magnetic fields experienced by the muon ensemble. <B> is the average magnetic field within the sample, whereas Bbg is the field in the silver sample holder. (c) Temperature dependence of inverse square of the London penetration depth λ−2. The solid line is the s-wave fit to the data. Toyabe (KT) function [47] where Ai initial asymmetry, σi is the Gaussian relaxation rate, γ =2π = 135.5 MHz/T is the muon gyromagnetic 1 2 −σ2 t2 µ G (t) = A + (1 − σ2 t2)exp ZF exp(−Λt) ratio, common phase offset φ, and B is the first moment KT 1 3 3 ZF 2 i for the ith component of the field distribution.