Highly anisotropic gap function in borocarbide superconductor LuNi(2)B(2)C.
PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2001;
87:237001. [PMID:
11736470 DOI:
10.1103/physrevlett.87.237001]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2001] [Indexed: 05/23/2023]
Abstract
The thermal conductivity of borocarbide superconductor LuNi(2)B(2)C was measured down to 70 mK (T(c)/200) in a magnetic field perpendicular to the heat current from H = 0 to above H(c2) = 7 T. As soon as vortices enter the sample, the conduction at T-->0 grows rapidly, showing unambiguously that delocalized quasiparticles are present at the lowest energies. The field dependence is very similar to that of UPt(3), a heavy-fermion superconductor with a line of nodes in the gap, and very different from the exponential dependence characteristic of s-wave superconductors. This is strong evidence for a highly anisotropic gap function in LuNi(2)B(2)C, possibly with nodes.
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