Superconductivity in Pb2-xBixPd Single Crystals

Abstract

Chemical substitution provides an effective route to tune the structural and superconducting properties and to explore the evolution of superconductivity across related materials. In this work, we investigate the effect of Pb/Bi mixing on superconductivity in possible topological superconductors \ch{Pb2Pd} and $β$-\ch{Bi2Pd}, by synthesizing and characterizing single crystals of \ch{Pb_{2-x}Bi_{x}Pd} ($0.2\le x\le1.8$). Increasing Bi content triggers a structural phase transition from non-symmorphic ($I4/mcm$, $x<1$) to layered ($I4/mmm$, $x\ge1$) and induces a monotonic expansion of the lattice parameters. Across the doped range, all superconducting samples behave as weakly-coupled type-II superconductors exhibiting isotropic s-wave superconducting gaps.