Point-contact spectroscopy of the borocarbide superconductor YNi2B2C

TL;DR

This study uses point-contact spectroscopy to investigate the electron-phonon interaction and superconducting gap anisotropy in YNi2B2C, revealing dominant low-energy phonon modes and evidence of multiband superconductivity.

Contribution

It provides detailed directional measurements of the superconducting gap and identifies the main phonon modes involved in electron-phonon coupling in YNi2B2C.

Findings

Electron-phonon interaction peaks around 12meV and 50meV.

Superconducting gap varies with direction, indicating anisotropy or multiband behavior.

BCS-like temperature dependence of the gap along c-axis.

Abstract

Point-contact (PC) spectroscopy measurements on YNi2B2C single crystals in the normal and superconducting (SC) state (T_c=15.4K) for the main crystallographic directions are reported. The PC study reveals the electron-phonon interaction (EPI) function with a dominant maximum around 12meV and a further weak structure (kink or shallow broad maximum) at higher energy at about 50meV. Other phonon maxima at 20, 24 and 32meV specified in the phonon DOS of YNi2B2C by neutron measurements [PRB, V.55, 9058 (1997)] are not resolved in the PC spectra pointing out to the main role of the low energy phonon modes in EPI. Directional study of the SC gap results in \Delta_[100]=1.5meV for the a- direction and \Delta_[001]=2.4meV along the c-axis which may point to anisotropic and/or multiband behavior. Noteworthy, the critical temperature T_c in all cases corresponds to that of bulk samples. The value 2\Delta_[001]/kT_c=3.6 is close to the BCS one of 3.52, and the temperature dependence \Delta(T) is BCS-like, while for the a-direction \Delta(T) deviates from mean-field BCS behavior above T_c/2. The directional variation in \Delta can be attributed to the multiband nature of the SC state in YNi2B2C predicted 10 years ago (PRL, V.80, 1730 (1998)).