Beyond triplet: Unconventional superconductivity in a spin-3/2 topological semimetal

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dc.contributor.authorKim, Hyunsoo
dc.contributor.authorWang, Kefeng
dc.contributor.authorNakajima, Yasuyuki
dc.contributor.authorHu, Rongwei
dc.contributor.authorZiemak, Steven
dc.contributor.authorSyers, Paul
dc.contributor.authorWang, Limin
dc.contributor.authorHodovanets, Halyna
dc.contributor.authorDenlinger, Jonathan D.
dc.contributor.authorBrydon, Philip M. R.
dc.contributor.authorAgterberg, Daniel F.
dc.contributor.authorTanatar, Makariy A.
dc.contributor.authorProzorov, Ruslan
dc.contributor.authorPaglione, Johnpierre
dc.date.accessioned2018-06-29T17:01:30Z
dc.date.available2018-06-29T17:01:30Z
dc.date.issued2018-04-06
dc.descriptionFunding for Open Access provided by the UMD Libraries' Open Access Publishing Fund.en_US
dc.description.abstractIn all known fermionic superfluids, Cooper pairs are composed of spin-1/2 quasi-particles that pair to form either spin-singlet or spin-triplet bound states. The “spin” of a Bloch electron, however, is fixed by the symmetries of the crystal and the atomic orbitals from which it is derived and, in some cases, can behave as if it were a spin-3/2 particle. The superconducting state of such a system allows pairing beyond spin-triplet, with higher spin quasi-particles combining to form quintet or septet pairs. We report evidence of unconventional superconductivity emerging from a spin-3/2 quasi-particle electronic structure in the half-Heusler semimetal YPtBi, a low-carrier density noncentrosymmetric cubic material with a high symmetry that preserves the p-like j = 3/2 manifold in the Bi-based Γ8 band in the presence of strong spin-orbit coupling. With a striking linear temperature dependence of the London penetration depth, the existence of line nodes in the superconducting order parameter Δ is directly explained by a mixed-parity Cooper pairing model with high total angular momentum, consistent with a high-spin fermionic superfluid state. We propose a k ⋅ p model of the j = 3/2 fermions to explain how a dominant J = 3 septet pairing state is the simplest solution that naturally produces nodes in the mixed even-odd parity gap. Together with the underlying topologically nontrivial band structure, the unconventional pairing in this system represents a truly novel form of superfluidity that has strong potential for leading the development of a new series of topological superconductors.en_US
dc.identifierhttps://doi.org/10.13016/M2CJ87P6C
dc.identifier.citationKim et al., Sci. Adv. 2018;4: eaao4513; DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aao4513en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/20702
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.publisherAmerican Association for the Advancement of Scienceen_US
dc.relation.isAvailableAtCollege of Computer, Mathematical & Natural Sciencesen_us
dc.relation.isAvailableAtPhysicsen_us
dc.relation.isAvailableAtDigital Repository at the University of Marylanden_us
dc.relation.isAvailableAtUniversity of Maryland (College Park, MD)en_us
dc.titleBeyond triplet: Unconventional superconductivity in a spin-3/2 topological semimetalen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

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