Spectroscopic evidence of multi-gap superconductivity in non-centrosymmetric AuBe

TL;DR

This study provides direct spectroscopic evidence of two-gap superconductivity in the non-centrosymmetric superconductor AuBe, revealing complex pairing behavior likely influenced by its unique crystal structure.

Contribution

First direct spectroscopic detection of multi-gap superconductivity in AuBe, clarifying its pairing symmetry and resolving previous ambiguities from other experimental methods.

Findings

Identification of two distinct superconducting gaps in AuBe

Both gaps exhibit BCS-like temperature dependence

Band structure calculations support multi-band origin of superconductivity

Abstract

AuBe is a chiral, non-centrosymmetric superconductor with transition temperature $T_C$ $\simeq$ 3.25 K. The broken inversion symmetry in its crystal structure makes AuBe a possible candidate to host a mixed singlet-triplet pairing symmetry in its superconducting order parameter ($\Delta$). This possibility was investigated by transport, thermodynamic, and muon-spin rotation/relaxation experiments in AuBe. However, this issue was not addressed using direct spectroscopic probes so far. In addition, certain ambiguities exist in the description of superconductivity in AuBe based on $\mu$SR experiments reported earlier. Here we report scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) on AuBe down to 300 mK. We found a signature of two superconducting gaps (with 2$\Delta_1/k_{B}T_{C}$ = 4.37 and 2$\Delta_2/k_{B}T_{C}$ = 2.46 respectively) and a clean BCS-like temperature dependence of both the gaps. We have also performed band structure calculations to identify the different bands that might give rise to the observed two-gap superconductivity in AuBe.