Published March 4, 2024 | Version v1
Journal article

Pressure evolution of the normal- and superconducting-state properties of the line-nodal material CaSb2 revealed by Sb123 nuclear quadrupole resonance

  • 1. Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan
  • 2. Maryland Quantum Materials Center and Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
  • 3. Toyota Riken-Kyoto University Research Center (TRiKUC), Kyoto 606-8501, Japan
  • 4. Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5G 1Z8

Description

CaSb2 is the Dirac line-nodal material that exhibits a superconducting (SC) transition at 1.7 K. In spite of its conventional SC state at ambient pressure, the transition temperature Tc shows a peak structure against hydrostatic pressure. We performed ac magnetic susceptibility and Sb123 nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) measurements on single-crystalline CaSb2 under pressures up to 2.08 GPa. Tc monotonically increased in this pressure region, which is consistent with a previous study. We observed continuous broadening of the NQR spectrum against pressure, which is a sign of unique compression behavior of the lattice. In the normal state, the nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate 1/T1 is proportional to temperature in all pressure values, typical of a metal. However, 1/T1T in the normal state is independent of pressure, indicating that the density of states at the Fermi energy N(EF), which is one of the parameters governing Tc, is insensitive to pressure. From these results, we conclude that N(EF) does not govern the origin of the enhancement in Tc. This is unusual for a weak electron-phonon coupling superconductor. In the SC state, we revealed that the SC gap becomes larger and more isotropic under pressure.

Additional details

Identifiers

DOI
10.1103/PhysRevB.109.L100501;
Crossref Funder ID
10.13039/100016926; 10.13039/501100001700; 10.13039/501100001691; 10.13039/100000015; 10.13039/100000936; 10.13039/501100001695;

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Physical Review B
Journal Volume
109
Journal Issue
10
Journal Page Range
6 pgs.
ISSN
1550-235X