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DOE OSTI · 2575372

Possible unconventional surface superconductivity in the half-Heusler compound YPtBi

Persky, Eylon [Stanford Univ., CA (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000340124633)·Fang, Alan [Stanford Univ., CA (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000226344448)·Zhang, Xinyang [Stanford Univ., CA (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000173443644)·Adamo, Carolina [Stanford Univ., CA (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States); Northrop Grumman Corporation, Redondo Beach, CA (United States)]·Wu, Phillip [Stanford Univ., CA (United States); National Chung Hsing Univ., Taichung (Taiwan)] (ORCID:0000000232109823)·Levenson-Falk, Eli [Stanford Univ., CA (United States); Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000200199465)·Shekhar, Chandra [Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, Dresden (Germany)] (ORCID:0000000233300400)·Felser, Claudia [Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, Dresden (Germany)] (ORCID:0000000282002063)·Yan, Binghai [Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Israel)] (ORCID:0000000321645839)·Kapitulnik, Aharon [Stanford Univ., CA (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000225693582)
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Abstract

Here, we report an extensive study of the noncentrosymmetric half-Heusler superconductor YPtBi, revealing an unusual relation between bulk superconductivity and the possible appearance of surface superconductivity on the (111) oriented surface, at temperatures up to three times the bulk transition temperature. Transport measurements confirmed the low carrier density of the material and its bulk superconducting transition, which was also observed in ac susceptibility through mutual inductance (MI) measurements. However, a weak signature of superconductivity in the MI measurements appeared much above the bulk transition temperature, which was further observed in scanning tunneling spectroscopy, pointing to a possible surface superconducting state. Polar Kerr effect measurements suggest that while the bulk superconductor may exhibit an unusual nodal superconducting state, only the surface state breaks time reversal symmetry. Complementary tunneling measurements on LuPtBi are used to establish the observations on YPtBi, while density-functional theory calculations may shed light on the origin of this unusual surface state.

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Persky, Eylon [Stanford Univ., CA (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000340124633), Fang, Alan [Stanford Univ., CA (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000226344448), Zhang, Xinyang [Stanford Univ., CA (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000173443644), Adamo, Carolina [Stanford Univ., CA (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States); Northrop Grumman Corporation, Redondo Beach, CA (United States)], Wu, Phillip [Stanford Univ., CA (United States); National Chung Hsing Univ., Taichung (Taiwan)] (ORCID:0000000232109823), Levenson-Falk, Eli [Stanford Univ., CA (United States); Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000200199465), Shekhar, Chandra [Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, Dresden (Germany)] (ORCID:0000000233300400), Felser, Claudia [Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, Dresden (Germany)] (ORCID:0000000282002063), Yan, Binghai [Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Israel)] (ORCID:0000000321645839), Kapitulnik, Aharon [Stanford Univ., CA (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000225693582). 2025-06-13. Possible unconventional surface superconductivity in the half-Heusler compound YPtBi. https://doi.org/10.1103/qt3v-yypc

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