We make the first report that a metallic pyrochlore oxide,
Cd2Re2O7, exhibits type II superconductivity at
1.1 K. The pyrochlore oxide is known to be a geometrically frustrated
system, which includes a tetrahedral network of magnetic ions. A
large number of compounds are classified in the family of pyrochlore
oxides, and these compounds exhibit a wide variety of physical
properties ranging from insulator through semiconductor and from bad
metal to good metal. Until now, however, no superconductivity has
been reported for frustrated pyrochlore oxides. The bulk
superconductivity of this compound is confirmed by measurements of
the resistivity and the alternating-current magnetic susceptibility.
The upper critical field
Hc2, which is extrapolated to 0 K, is estimated as about
0.8 T, using the resistivity measurements under an applied field.
The plot of Hc2 versus T indicates that the Cooper pairs
are composed of rather heavy quasiparticles. This fact suggests
that frustrated heavy electrons become superconducting in this
compound.
We have performed the 125 Te-nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurement in the field along the b axis on the newly discovered superconductor UTe 2 , which is a candidate of a spin-triplet superconductor. The nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate divided by temperature 1/T 1 T abruptly decreases below a superconducting (SC) transition temperature T c without showing a coherence peak, indicative of UTe 2 being an unconventional superconductor. It was found that the temperature dependence of 1/T 1 T in the SC state cannot be understood by a single SC gap behavior but can be explained by a two SC gap model. The Knight shift, proportional to the spin susceptibility, decreases below T c , but the magnitude of the decrease is much smaller than the decrease expected in the spin-singlet pairing. Rather, the small Knight-shift decrease as well as the absence of the Pauli-depairing effect can be interpreted by the spin triplet scenario.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.