Controllable spin-orbit coupling and its influence on the upper critical field in the chemically doped quasi-one-dimensional Nb$_2$PdS$_5$ superconductor

TL;DR

This study investigates how chemical doping with Pt and Ni affects the superconducting properties and upper critical field in Nb$_2$PdS$_5$, highlighting the role of spin-orbit coupling and doping element mass.

Contribution

It demonstrates that doping on Pd chains with elements of different masses can tune the upper critical field and suggests spin-orbit coupling's significant influence on superconductivity.

Findings

Pt doping enhances Hc2/Tc ratio significantly.

Ni doping suppresses the Hc2/Tc ratio.

Superconductivity remains robust against Pt and Ni doping.

Abstract

By systematic chemical substitution of Pt and Ni in the newly-discovered superconductor Nb$_2$PdS$_5$ ($T_c\sim$6 K), we study the evolution of its superconducting properties with doping, focussing on the behavior of the upper critical field $H_{c2}$. In contrast to the previous results of Se doping on S sites, superconductivity is found to be rather robust against the Pt and Ni dopants on the one-dimensional Pd chains. Most strikingly, the reduced $H_{c2}$, i.e., the ratio of $H_{c2}/T_c$, is seen to be significantly enhanced by the heavier Pt doping but suppressed in the Ni-doped counterparts, distinct from the nearly constant value in the Se doped samples. Our findings therefore suggest that the upper critical field of this system can be modified in a tunable fashion by chemical doping on the Pd chains with elements of varying mass numbers. The spin-orbit coupling on the Pd sites, by inference, should play an important role in the observed superconductivity and on the large upper critical field beyond the Pauli pair-breaking field.