Superconductivity and spin-orbit coupling in non-centrosymmetric materials: a review

In non-centrosymmetric superconductors, where the crystal structure lacks a centre of inversion, parity is no longer a good quantum number and an electronic antisymmetric spin-orbit coupling (ASOC) is allowed to exist by symmetry. If this ASOC is sufficiently large, it has profound consequences on the superconducting state. For example, it generally leads to a superconducting pairing state which is a mixture of spin-singlet and spin-triplet components. The possibility of such novel pairing states, as well as the potential for observing a variety of unusual behaviors, led to intensive theoretical and experimental investigations. Here we review the experimental and theoretical results for superconducting systems lacking inversion symmetry. Firstly we give a conceptual overview of the key theoretical results. We then review the experimental properties of both strongly and weakly correlated bulk materials, as well as two dimensional systems. Here the focus is on evaluating the effects of ASOC on the superconducting properties and the extent to which there is evidence for singlet-triplet mixing. This is followed by a more detailed overview of theoretical aspects of non-centrosymmetric superconductivity. This includes the effects of the ASOC on the pairing symmetry and the superconducting magnetic response, magneto-electric effects, superconducting finite momentum pairing states, and the potential for non-centrosymmetric superconductors to display topological superconductivity.

Structure and bonding of superconducting LaC2

We have synthesized polycrystalline samples of superconducting LaC2 and investigated them by x-ray and neutron powder diffraction, magnetic susceptibility and heat capacity measurements. Depending on the preparation conditions we find superconductivity below ~1.8 K. A comparison of the superconducting anomaly in the heat capacity with theoretical predictions indicates LaC2 to be a weak-coupling BCS-type superconductor. Evidence for a structural phase transition has not been found from the neutron powder diffraction experiments carried out down to 4 K. A negative thermal expansion of the c lattice parameter was observed below ~50 K. The electronic structure of LaC2 has been calculated ab initio and it is compared with that of YC2. The carbon-carbon distance of LaC2 has been determined from the neutron powder diffraction experiments and it is compared and discussed with respect to those observed in other superconducting binary and ternary La and Y carbides and carbide halides.

Ca2LiC3H: a new complex carbide hydride phase grown in metal flux

The reaction of carbon and CaH2 in a calcium/lithium flux mixture produces crystals of the new compound Ca2LiC3H. This phase forms with a new structure type in tetragonal space group P4/mbm (a = 6.8236(1) Å, c = 3.7518(1) Å, Z = 2, R1 = 0.0151). This is a stuffed variant of the Cs2(NH2)N3 structure, containing hydride anions in octahedral sites; the structure determination by single-crystal X-ray diffraction surprisingly allowed the hydrogen to be detected. The Ca2LiC3H structure also features the rarely seen C3(4-) carbide anion; the protolysis reaction of this compound with ammonium chloride produces C3H4. The electronic properties of Ca2LiC3H were studied by quantum-chemical calculations including band structure and electron localization function (ELF) analysis; the phase is a charge-balanced semiconductor with a calculated band gap of 0.48 eV. This is in agreement with (7)Li, (13)C, and (1)H MAS NMR data, which show resonances in the ionic region instead of the Knight shifted region. ELF analysis of the theoretical nonhydrided Ca2LiC3 structure confirms the ability of these calculations to properly locate hydrides and supports the structural model based on X-ray diffraction data.

Multigap superconductivity in sesquicarbides La2C3 and Y2C3

A complex structure of the superconducting order parameter in Ln2C3 (Ln=La,Y) is demonstrated by muon spin relaxation measurements in their mixed state. The muon depolarization rate sigma v(T)] exhibits a characteristic temperature dependence that can be perfectly described by a phenomenological double-gap model for nodeless superconductivity. While the magnitude of two gaps is similar between La2C3 and Y2C3, a significant difference in the interband coupling between those two cases is clearly observed in the behavior of sigma v(T).