Pressure-induced superconductivity in Bi single crystals

Abstract

Measurements on resistivity and magnetic susceptibility have been carried out for Bi single crystals under pressures up to 10.5 GPa. The temperature dependent resistivity shows a semimetallic behavior at ambient and low pressures (below about 1.6 GPa). This is followed by an upturn of resistivity in the low temperature region when the pressure is increased, which is explained as a semiconductor behavior. This feature gradually gets enhanced up to a pressure of about 2.52 GPa. Then a nonmonotonic temperature dependent resistivity appears upon further increasing pressure, which is accompanied by a strong suppression to the low temperature resistivity upturn. Simultaneously, a superconducting transition occurs at about 3.92 K under a pressure of about 2.63 GPa. With further increasing pressure, a second superconducting transition emerges at about 7 K under about 2.8 GPa. For these two superconducting states, the superconductivity induced magnetic screening volumes are quite large. As the pressure further increases to 8.1 GPa, we observe the third superconducting transition at about 8.2 K. The resistivity measurements under magnetic field allow us to determine the upper critical fields μ0Hc2 of the superconducting phases. The upper critical field for the phase with Tc=3.92 K is extremely low. Based on the Werthamer-Helfand-Hohenberg (WHH) theory, the estimated value of μ0Hc2 for this phase is about 0.103 T, while the upper critical field for the phase with Tc=7 K is very high with a value of about 4.56 T. Finally, we present a pressure dependent phase diagram of Bi single crystals. Our results reveal the interesting and rich physics in bismuth single crystals under high pressure.

Source-reported materials — not catalogue approval

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