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Transition-metal-based carbides (TMCs), renowned for their exceptional hardness, mechanical strength, and thermal properties, have recently emerged as promising candidates for topological superconductivity. In this study, we synthesized ReC in the NaCl structure at ambient pressure by substituting Mo or W at the Re-site. We investigated the superconducting properties of Re$_{1-x}$T$_{x}$C (where T = Mo, W) for $x = 0.5$ using magnetization, resistivity and specific heat measurements. These compounds display type-II, fully gapped, weakly coupled superconductivity with high critical fields, establishing them as new members of superconducting ultra-hard materials at ambient pressure and paving the way for superconducting device applications under extreme conditions., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures

High-entropy alloy (HEA) superconductors have attracted significant attention due to their exceptional low-temperature mechanical and superconducting properties. We report the synthesis and thorough characterization of an equiatomic HEA superconductor with the composition Sc$_{0.20}$V$_{0.20}$Ti$_{0.20}$Hf$_{0.20}$Nb$_{0.20}$, crystallizing in a body-centered cubic crystal structure (Im3$\bar{m}$). Our investigation, using magnetization, transport, and heat capacity measurements, reveals the presence of weakly coupled, fully gapped superconductivity with a transition temperature of 4.17(3) K and the upper critical field exceeding the Pauli paramagnetic limit. The metallic nature, combined with a high upper critical field, positions it as a promising candidate for applications in superconducting devices., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures

Rhenium-based superconductors have recently attracted significant interest due to their unconventional superconducting properties. In this work, we report the synthesis and properties of new superconducting Re$_{7}$X$_{3}$ (X = Nb, Ta, Ti, Zr, Hf) binary alloys which maintain a fixed composition of rhenium while crystallizing in centrosymmetric to non-centrosymmetric crystal structures, depending on the elements of the X site. Comprehensive structural and superconducting properties were investigated using powder x-ray diffraction, AC transport, magnetization, and specific heat measurements, and on the basis of these measurements, the superconducting phase diagram was constructed. The results suggest a complex interplay of crystal structure and the Re/X ratio, which governs the strength of spin-orbital coupling and controls the unconventional superconducting behavior in Re-based superconductors., Comment: 8 pages, 9 figure

The microscopic properties of superconducting cubic skutterudite-like material Y$_3$Ru$_4$Ge$_{13}$ are investigated using muon spin relaxation and rotation ($\mu$SR) measurements. Zero-field $\mu$SR measurements reveal the presence of a spontaneous internal field with a magnitude of $\approx$ 0.18~mT below the superconducting transition temperature, indicating broken time-reversal symmetry in the ground state. In line with previous experiments, transverse-field $\mu$SR measurements are consistent with a fully developed superconductivity gap in Y$_3$Ru$_4$Ge$_{13}$. Our observations point towards the relevance of electronic correlations beyond electron-phonon coupling as origin and indicate that spin-orbit coupling is likely not the key driving force behind the spontaneous breaking of time-reversal symmetry in this system., Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures

High upper-critical field superconducting alloys are required for superconducting device applications. In this study, we extensively characterized the structure and superconducting properties of alloys Ta$_{x}$ Hf$_{1-x}$ (x = 0.2, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6 and 0.8). The substitution of Hf (T$_{C}$ = 0.12 K, type-I superconductor) with Ta (T$_{C}$ = 4.4 K, type-I superconductor) shows an anomalous enhancement of T$_{C}$ with variation of composition. Interestingly, all compositions exhibited strongly coupled bulk type-II superconductivity with a high upper critical field. In particular, for compositions x = 0.2, and 0.4, the upper critical field (H$_{C2}$) approached the Pauli limiting field., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures

Superconducting high-entropy alloys (HEAs) are a newly burgeoning field of unconventional superconductors and raise intriguing questions about the presence of superconductivity in highly disordered systems, which lack regular phonon modes. In our study, we have synthesized and investigated the superconducting characteristics of two new transition elements based HEAs Re$_{0.35} $Os$_{0.35} $Mo$_{0.08} $W$_{0.10} $Zr$_{0.12}$ (ReOMWZ) crystallizing in noncentrosymmetric $\alpha$-Mn structure, and Ru$_{0.35} $Os$_{0.35} $Mo$_{0.10} $W$_{0.10} $Zr$_{0.10}$ (RuOMWZ) crystallizing hexagonal closed-packed structure (hcp). Transition metal-based hexagonal hcp HEA is rare and highly desirable for practical applications due to their high hardness. Bulk magnetization, resistivity, and specific heat measurements confirmed bulk type-II superconductivity in both alloys. Specific heat analysis up to the measured low-temperature range suffices for a BCS explanation. Comparable upper critical fields with the Pauli paramagnetic limit suggest the possibility of unconventional superconductivity in both HEAs., Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures

The complex structure of the Remeika phases, the intriguing quantum states they display, and their low carrier concentrations are a strong motivation to study the nature of their superconducting phases. In this work, the microscopic properties of the superconducting phase of single-crystalline Lu$_3$Os$_4$Ge$_{13}$ are investigated by muon-spin relaxation and rotation ($\mu$SR) measurements. The zero-field $\mu$SR data reveal the presence of spontaneous static or quasi-static magnetic fields in the superconducting state, breaking time-reversal symmetry; the associated internal magnetic field scale is found to be exceptionally large ($\approx$ 0.18~mT). Furthermore, transverse-field $\mu$SR measurements in the vortex state of Lu$_3$Os$_4$Ge$_{13}$ imply a complex gap function with significantly different strengths on different parts of the Fermi surface. While our measurements do not completely determine the order parameter, they strongly indicate that electron-electron interactions are essential to stabilizing pairing in the system, thus, demonstrating its unconventional nature., Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures

We have studied the superconducting properties of the isostructural ternary noncentrosymmetric superconductors TaXSi (X = Re, Ru) with the help of muon spin rotation/relaxation ($\mu$SR) and density functional theory calculations. Our transverse-field $\mu$SR measurements indicate isotropic s-wave superconductivity in TaReSi and multi-gap superconductivity in TaRuSi. Zero-field $\mu$SR measurements, highly sensitive to very small magnetic fields, and no evidence for spontaneous fields in the superconducting state of TaReSi, whereas we observe small spontaneous fields that onset with superconductivity indicating broken time-reversal symmetry (TRS) superconductivity in TaRuSi. Using density functional theory calculations, we find that spin-orbit coupling is relatively weak in TaRuSi and strong in TaReSi. Using symmetry analysis, we attribute the broken time-reversal symmetry (TRS) in TaRuSi to a non-unitary triplet pairing state. Such a state is not allowed in the presence of strong spin-orbit coupling: our finding of no evidence for broken TRS in TaReSi is consistent with this expectation., Comment: 11 Pages, 5 Figures: Accepted for publication as a Regular Article in Physical Review B

We have studied the electronic properties of ScS, a transition-metal monochalcogenide with rocksalt crystal structure, using magnetization, specific heat, transport, and muon spin rotation/relaxation ($\mu$SR) measurements. All measurements confirm the bulk superconducting in ScS with a transition temperature of $T_{C}$ = 5.1(5) K. Specific heat together with transverse-field $\mu$SR measurements indicate a full gap, while our zero-field $\mu$SR study reveals the presence of spontaneous static or quasi-static magnetic fields emerging when entering the superconducting state. We discuss various possible microscopic origins of the observed time-reversal-symmetry breaking. As none of them can be readily reconciled with a conventional pairing mechanism, this introduces ScS as a novel candidate material for unconventional superconductivity., Comment: 6 Pages, 3 figures