Andreev-reflection spectroscopy of SrPt3P single crystals

Abstract

The interplay between inversion symmetry breaking and superconducting pairing mechanisms is a long-standing puzzle of solid-state physics. Ternary platinum phosphide SrPt$_3$P is an excellent case study in this regard, since it shares the distorted anti-perovskite crystal structure of non-centrosymmetric superconductor CePt$_3$Si but preserves the inversion symmetry center, enabling a direct comparison between the two compounds. Despite intense scrutiny, the superconducting pairing strength, gap symmetry, and magnitude of SrPt$_3$P remain an open question. Here, we study the gap structure of high-quality SrPt$_3$P single crystals with $T_c = 8.6$ K by using point-contact Andreev-reflection spectroscopy. The spectra systematically showed symmetric conductance maxima and a zero-bias minimum, as is typical of fully gapped superconductors, and dips at finite voltage $V_\mathrm{dip}$ due to the local transition of the contact region to the resistive state. In contacts with high resistance, where the dips fall sufficiently far from the gap features, the conductance curves can be well fitted with a single isotropic $s$-wave gap. The temperature dependence $Δ(T)$ of the gap amplitude extracted from the fit is in good agreement with the one predicted by the BCS theory, with a zero-temperature mean value $Δ(0)=1.88\pm0.08$ meV, and a mean gap ratio $2Δ/k_\mathrm{B}T_c = 5.2\pm0.2$.