Impurity Effects in Nodal Extended $s$- and Nodeless $d$-Wave Superconductors: Gap Symmetry of BiS$_2$-Based Layered Superconductors

TL;DR

This paper investigates the gap symmetry in BiS$_2$-based superconductors, proposing that impurity effects can reconcile conflicting experimental results and suggesting that both nodeless $d$-wave and extended $s$-wave states are possible.

Contribution

It introduces a framework considering impurity effects to explain the gap symmetry, highlighting the potential for nodeless $d$-wave superconductivity in these materials.

Findings

Impurity effects can reconcile conflicting experimental gap indications.

Nodeless $d$-wave superconductivity is a plausible scenario.

Proposes nuclear magnetic relaxation rate measurements to determine gap symmetry.

Abstract

In BiS$_2$-based layered superconductors,the existence of gap nodes on Fermi-surface curves has been suggested from angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements, whereas the conventional $s$-wave gap has been proposed from measurements of superfluid density and thermal conductivity. To reconcile these two distinct experimental results of the gap node, we investigate nonmagnetic impurity effects in the superconductor with a disconnected pocketlike Fermi-surface structure. Then, we claim that the seemingly contradictory situation concerning the gap node is resolved by a concept of dirty nodal extended $s$-wave superconductivity. Provided that it is unnecessary to consider the nodes of the gap, at first glance, the conventional $s$-wave gap seems to be a unique solution, but in the pocketlike Fermi-surface topology, a nontrivial possibility of a nodeless $d$-wave superconductor is pointed out. To clarify the gap symmetry, we propose to perform experiments on nuclear magnetic relaxation rate $T_{1}^{-1}$ in BiS$_2$-based layered superconductors.