Spin Triplet Superconducting State due to Broken Inversion Symmetry in<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:msub><mml:mi>Li</mml:mi><mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:msub><mml:msub><mml:mi>Pt</mml:mi><mml:mn>3</mml:mn></mml:msub><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">B</mml:mi></mml:math>

Abstract

We report (11)B and (195)Pt NMR measurements in noncentrosymmetric superconductor Li(2)Pt(3)B. We find that the spin susceptibility measured by the Knight shift remains unchanged across the superconducting transition temperature T(c). With decreasing temperature (T) below T(c), the spin-lattice relaxation rate 1/T(1) decreases with no coherence peak and is in proportion to T3. These results indicate that the Cooper pair is in the spin-triplet state and that there exist line nodes in the superconducting gap function. They are in sharp contrast to those in the isostructural Li(2)Pd(3)B which is a spin-singlet, s-wave superconductor, and are ascribed to the enhanced spin-orbit coupling due to the lack of spatial inversion symmetry. Our finding points to a new paradigm where exotic superconductivity arises in the absence of electron-electron correlations.

Locations

• Physical Review Letters - View
• arXiv (Cornell University) - View - PDF
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