Non-centrosymmetric superconductor La3Bi4Pt3
Résumé
Recently, we have discovered that the metallic La3Bi4Pt3 (Y3Au3Sb4 structure) becomes superconducting below a transition temperature Tc of about 1.4K. Our interest in the superconducting phase of La3Bi4Pt3 stems from the fact that it lacks a center of inversion, which may lead to unconventional su- perconductivity, including nodes in the superconducting gap function, even if the pair wave function exhibits the full spatial symmetry of the crystal. Compared to other non-centrosymmetric magnetic compounds in which superconductivity has recently been discovered, like CePt3Si, UIr, CeRhSi3 (under pressure), the nature of the superconducting state in La3Bi4Pt3 is not complicated by strong electron correlations nor the coexistence of magnetism. This makes it a good model system to study superconductivity without inversion symmetry. In our presentation we will focus on the first basic characterization of our La3Bi4Pt3 single crystals (X-ray, specifc heat, resistivity, penetration depth, etc.).