1. Discovery of superconductivity and electron-phonon drag in the non-centrosymmetric Weyl semimetal LaRhGe3
- Author
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Mohamed Oudah, Hsiang-Hsi Kung, Samikshya Sahu, Niclas Heinsdorf, Armin Schulz, Kai Philippi, Marta-Villa De Toro Sanchez, Yipeng Cai, Kenji Kojima, Andreas P. Schnyder, Hidenori Takagi, Bernhard Keimer, Doug A. Bonn, and Alannah M. Hallas
- Subjects
Materials of engineering and construction. Mechanics of materials ,TA401-492 ,Atomic physics. Constitution and properties of matter ,QC170-197 - Abstract
Abstract We present an exploration of the effect of electron-phonon coupling and broken inversion symmetry on the electronic and thermal properties of the semimetal LaRhGe3. Our transport measurements reveal evidence for electron-hole compensation at low temperatures, resulting in a large magnetoresistance of 3000% at 1.8 K and 14 T. The carrier concentration is on the order of 1021/cm3 with high carrier mobilities of 2000 cm2/Vs. When coupled to our theoretical demonstration of symmetry-protected almost movable Weyl nodal lines, we conclude that LaRhGe3 supports a Weyl semimetallic state. We discover superconductivity in this compound with a T c of 0.39(1) K and B c(0) of 2.2(1) mT, with evidence from specific heat and transverse-field muon spin relaxation. We find an exponential dependence in the normal state electrical resistivity below ~50 K, while Seebeck coefficient and thermal conductivity measurements each reveal a prominent peak at low temperatures, indicative of strong electron-phonon interactions. To this end, we examine the temperature-dependent Raman spectra of LaRhGe3 and find that the lifetime of the lowest energy A 1 phonon is dominated by phonon-electron scattering instead of anharmonic decay. We conclude that LaRhGe3 has strong electron-phonon coupling in the normal state, while the superconductivity emerges from weak electron-phonon coupling. These results open up the investigation of electron-phonon interactions in the normal state of superconducting non-centrosymmetric Weyl semimetals.
- Published
- 2024
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