Anomalous charge transport of superconducting CuxPdTe2 under high pressure

Abstract

By means of high-pressure resistivity measurements on single crystals, we investigate the charge transport properties of CuxPdTe2, notable for the combination of topological type-II Dirac semimetallic properties with superconductivity up to Tc=2.5K. In both pristine (x=0) and intercalated (x=0.05) samples, we find an unconventional T4 power law behavior of the low-temperature resistivity visible up to ∼40 K and remarkably stable under pressure up to 8.2 GPa. This observation is explained by the low carrier density n, which strongly reduces the k region available for electron-phonon scattering, as previously reported in other low-n two-dimensional systems, such as multilayer graphene and semiconductor heterostructures. Our data analysis complemented by specific heat measurements and supported by previous quantum oscillation studies and ab initio calculations suggests a scenario of one-band charge transport. Within this scenario, our analysis yields a large value of the transport electron-phonon coupling constant λtr=1.2 at ambient pressure that appears to be strongly enhanced by pressure assuming a constant effective mass.

Source-reported materials — not catalogue approval

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