Observation of superconductivity accompanying the pressure-induced structural phase transition in LaSb

Min Zhang, Xiangqi Wang, Azizur Rahman, Rucheng Dai, Zhongping Wang, and Zengming Zhang
Phys. Rev. B 101, 064106 – Published 25 February 2020

Abstract

LaSb has attracted intense interest due to the recent discovery of its extreme magnetoresistance (XMR) and controversial topology states. Motivated by the existing structural phase transition and the possible topological phase transition, the electrical transport properties of a LaSb single crystal under pressure up to 35 GPa were investigated. Superconductivity appears at 10.8 GPa, and the critical temperature (Tc) rapidly reaches a maximum of 5.3 K at 13.7 GPa and then linearly decreases with further loading pressure, which can be represented by a typical dome-shaped superconducting phase diagram. The superconductivity is believed to originate from the significant increase of the density of states near the Fermi level [N(EF)], which is induced by the volume collapse due to the structural transition from cubic to tetragonal at approximately 10.8 GPa. This result has inspired systematic studies of the LnX (Ln = lanthanide and X=P, As, Sb, Bi) family under high pressure, especially superconductivity investigations.

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  • Received 30 November 2019
  • Accepted 3 February 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.101.064106

©2020 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Min Zhang1, Xiangqi Wang1, Azizur Rahman1, Rucheng Dai2, Zhongping Wang2, and Zengming Zhang1,2,*

  • 1CAS Key Laboratory of Strongly Coupled Quantum Matter Physics, and Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China
  • 2Center of Physical Experiments, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China

  • *Corresponding author: zzm@ustc.edu.cn

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Vol. 101, Iss. 6 — 1 February 2020

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