Interplay of Coulomb repulsion and spin-orbit coupling in superconducting 3D quadratic band touching Luttinger semimetals

Abstract

We investigate the superconductivity of 3D Luttinger semimetals, such as YPtBi, where Cooper pairs are constituted of spin-3/2 quasiparticles. Various pairing mechanisms have already been considered for these semimetals, such as from polar phonons modes, and in this work we explore pairing from the screened electron-electron Coulomb repulsion. In these materials, the small Fermi energy and the spin-orbit coupling strongly influence how charge fluctuations can mediate pairing. We find the superconducting critical temperature as a function of doping for an s-wave order parameter, and determine its sensitivity to changes in the dielectric permittivity. Also, we discuss how order parameters other than s-wave may lead to a larger critical temperature, due to spin-orbit coupling.