Muon spin rotation and relaxation study on topological noncentrosymmetric superconductor PbTaSe$_2$

Abstract

Topological superconductivity is an exotic phenomenon due to the symmetry-protected topological surface state, in which a quantum system has an energy gap in the bulk but supports gapless excitations confined to its boundary. Symmetries including central and time-reversal (TRS), along with their relations with topology, are crucial for topological superconductivity. We report muon spin relaxation/rotation (µSR) experiments on a topological noncentrosymmetric superconductor PbTaSe2 to study its TRS and gap symmetry. Zero-field µSR experiments indicate the absence of internal magnetic field in the superconducting state, consistent with previous µSR results. Furthermore, transverse-field µSR measurements reveals that the superconducting gap of PbTaSe2 is an isotropic three-dimensional fully-gapped single-band. The fully-gapped results can help understand the pairing mechanism and further classify the topological superconductivity in this system.