Superconductivity with extremely large upper critical fields in Nb2Pd0.81S5

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of superconductivity in Nb2Pd0.81S5 with extremely high and anisotropic upper critical fields, indicating multi-band and potentially unconventional superconductivity near a magnetic state.

Contribution

It introduces a new superconductor with record high upper critical fields and provides insights into its multi-band nature and proximity to magnetism.

Findings

Superconductivity observed at Tc > 6.6 K.

Upper critical fields up to 37 T along certain axes.

Evidence suggests multi-band and unconventional superconductivity.

Abstract

Here, we report the discovery of superconductivity in a new transition metal-chalcogenide compound, i.e. Nb2Pd0.81S5, with a transition temperature Tc > 6.6 K. Despite its relatively low Tc, it displays remarkably high and anisotropic superconducting upper critical fields, e.g. mu_0 H_{c2} (T approaching 0 K). 37 T for fields applied along the crystallographic b-axis. For a field applied perpendicularly to the b-axis, mu_0 H_{c2} shows a linear dependence in temperature which coupled to a temperature-dependent anisotropy of the upper critical fields, suggests that Nb2Pd0.81S5 is a multi-band superconductor. This is consistent with band structure calculations which reveal nearly cylindrical and quasi-one-dimensional Fermi surface sheets having hole and electron character, respectively. The static spin susceptibility as calculated through the random phase approximation, reveals strong peaks suggesting proximity to a magnetic state and therefore the possibility of unconventional superconductivity.