Bhattacharyya A, Adroja D T, Panda K, Saha Surabhi, Das Tanmoy, Machado A J S, Cigarroa O V, Grant T W, Fisk Z, Hillier A D, Manfrinetti P
Department of Physics, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Educational and Research Institute, Belur Math, Howrah 711202, West Bengal, India.
ISIS Facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Didcot Oxon, OX11 0QX, United Kingdom.
Phys Rev Lett. 2019 Apr 12;122(14):147001. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.147001.
The newly discovered noncentrosymmetric superconductor ThCoC_{2} exhibits numerous types of unconventional behavior in the field dependent heat capacity data. Here we present the first measurement of the gap symmetry of ThCoC_{2} by muon spin rotation and relaxation (μSR) measurements. The temperature dependence of the magnetic penetration depth measured using the transverse field μSR experiment reveals the evidence of a nodal pairing symmetry. To understand this finding, we carry out calculations of the superconducting pairing eigenvalue and eigenfunction (pairing symmetry) due to the spin-fluctuation mechanism by directly implementing the ab initio band structures. We find that the system possesses a single Fermi surface with considerable three dimensionality and a strong nesting along the k_{z} direction. Such nesting promotes a superconducting state with a cosk_{z}-like pairing symmetry with a prominent nodal line on the k_{z}=±π/2 plane. The result agrees well with the experimental data.