Discovery of Superconductivity in Nb$_4$SiSb$_2$ with a V$_4$SiSb$_2$-Type Structure and Implications of Interstitial Doping on its Physical Properties

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of superconductivity in Nb4SiSb2 with a V4SiSb2-type structure and explores how interstitial doping with Cu, Pd, or Pt affects its superconducting properties, revealing a decrease in T_c with electron-donor doping.

Contribution

The study introduces a new superconducting compound Nb4SiSb2 and demonstrates how interstitial doping influences its superconducting transition temperature.

Findings

Nb4SiSb2 is a superconductor with T_c ≈ 1.6 K.

Interstitial doping with Cu, Pd, Pt lowers T_c.

Superconductivity confirmed by specific heat measurements.

Abstract

We report on the discovery, structural analysis, and the physical properties of Nb$_4$SiSb$_2$ -- a hitherto unknown compound crystallizing in the V$_4$SiSb$_2$-type structure with the tetragonal space group $I4/mcm$ and unit cell parameters $a$ = 10.3638(2) $\mathring{\mathrm{A}}$ and $c$ = 4.9151(2) $\mathring{\mathrm{A}}$. We find Nb$_4$SiSb$_2$ to be a metal undergoing a transition to a superconducting state at a critical temperature of $T_{\rm c} \approx$ 1.6 K. The bulk nature of the superconductivity in this material is confirmed by the observation of a well defined discontinuity in specific heat with a normalized specific heat jump of $\Delta C(T_{\rm c})/\gamma T_{\rm c} = 1.33\, {\rm mJ}\, {\rm mol}^{-1}\, {\rm K}^{-2}$. We find that for Nb$_4$SiSb$_2$, the unoccupied sites on the $4b$ Wyckoff position can be partially occupied with Cu, Pd, or Pt. Low-temperature resistivity measurements show transitions to superconductivity for all three compounds at $T_{\rm c} \approx\, 1.2\, {\rm K}$ for Nb$_4$Cu$_{0.2}$SiSb$_2$, and $T_{\rm c} \approx\, 0.8\, {\rm K}$ for Nb$_4$Pd$_{0.2}$SiSb$_2$ as well as for Nb$_4$Pt$_{0.14}$SiSb$_2$. The addition of electron-donor atoms into these void positions, henceforth, lowers the superconducting transition temperature in comparison to the parent compound.