The structure of dielectric perovskite BaZrO3, long known to be cubic at room temperature without any structural phase transition with variation in temperature, has been recently disputed to have different ground state structures with lower symmetries involving octahedra rotation. Pressure-dependent Raman scattering measurements can identify the hierarchy of energetically-adjacent polymorphs, helping in turn to understand its ground state structure at atmospheric pressure. Here, the Raman scattering spectra of high-quality BaZrO3 single crystals grown by the optical floating zone method are investigated in a pressure range from 1 atm to 42 GPa. First, based on the analyses of the infrared and Raman spectra measured at atmospheric pressure, it was found that all the observed vibrational modes could be assigned according to the cubic Pm3¯m structure. In addition, by applying pressure, two structural phase transitions were found at 8.4 and 19.2 GPa, one from the cubic to the rhombohedral R3¯c phase and the other from the rhombohedral to the tetragonal I4/mcm phase. Based on the two pressure-induced structural phase transitions, the true ground state structure of BaZrO3 at room temperature and ambient pressure was corroborated to be cubic while the rhombohedral phase was the closest second.

Single crystals of pristine and 6% Pd-intercalated 2H-TaSe2 have been studied by means of 77Se nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). The temperature dependence of the 77Se spectrum, with an unexpected line narrowing upon Pd intercalation, unravels the presence of correlated local lattice distortions far above the transition temperature of the charge density wave (CDW) order, thereby supporting a strong-coupling CDW mechanism in 2H-TaSe2. While, the Knight shift data suggest that the incommensurate CDW transition involves a partial Fermi surface gap opening. As for spin dynamics, the 77Se spin-lattice relaxation rate T1 -1 as a function of temperature shows that a pseudogap behavior dominates the low-energy spin excitations even within the CDW phase, and gets stronger along with superconductivity in the Pd-6% sample. We discuss that CDW fluctuations may be responsible for the pseudogap as well as superconductivity, although the two phenomena are unlikely to be directly linked each other.

CsV3Sb5 exhibits superconductivity at Tc = 3.2 K after undergoing intriguing two high-temperature transitions: charge density wave order at ~98 K and electronic nematic order at Tnem ~ 35 K. Here, we investigate nematic susceptibility in single crystals of Cs(V1-xTix)3Sb5 (x = 0.00-0.06) where double-dome-shaped superconducting phase diagram is realized. The nematic susceptibility typically exhibits the Curie‒Weiss behaviour above Tnem, which is monotonically decreased with x. Moreover, the Curie‒Weiss temperature is systematically suppressed from ~30 K for x = 0 to ~4 K for x = 0.0075, resulting in a sign change at x = ~0.009. Furthermore, the Curie constant reaches a maximum at x = 0.01, suggesting drastically enhanced nematic susceptibility near a putative nematic quantum critical point (NQCP) at x = ~0.009. Strikingly, Tc is enhanced up to ~4.1 K with full Meissner shielding realized at x = ~0.0075-0.01, forming the first superconducting dome near the NQCP. Our findings directly point to a vital role of nematic fluctuations in enhancing the superconducting properties of Cs(V1-xTix)3Sb5.

In order to understand the superconducting gap nature of a $$\hbox {2H-Pd}_{0.08} \hbox {TaSe}_2$$ 2H-Pd 0.08 TaSe 2 single crystal with $$T_{c} = 3.13 \text { K}$$ T c = 3.13 K , in-plane thermal conductivity $$\kappa $$ κ , in-plane London penetration depth $$\lambda _{\text {L}}$$ λ L , and the upper critical fields $$H_{c2}$$ H c 2 have been investigated. At zero magnetic field, it is found that no residual linear term $$\kappa _{0}/T$$ κ 0 / T exists and $$\lambda _{\text {L}}$$ λ L follows a power-law $$T^n$$ T n (T: temperature) with n = 2.66 at $$T \le \frac{1}{3}T_c$$ T ≤ 1 3 T c , supporting nodeless superconductivity. Moreover, the magnetic-field dependence of $$\kappa _{0}$$ κ 0 /T clearly shows a shoulder-like feature at a low field region. The temperature dependent $$H_{c2}$$ H c 2 curves for both in-plane and out-of-plane field directions exhibit clear upward curvatures near $$T_c$$ T c , consistent with the shape predicted by the two-band theory and the anisotropy ratio between the $$H_{c2}$$ H c 2 (T) curves exhibits strong temperature-dependence. All these results coherently suggest that $$\hbox {2H-Pd}_{0.08} \hbox {TaSe}_2$$ 2H-Pd 0.08 TaSe 2 is a nodeless, multiband superconductor.

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