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M. J. Grant

Publications and source records attributed to M. J. Grant.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

Anisotropic fully-gapped superconductivity in quasi-one-dimensional Li$_{0.9}$Mo$_6$O$_{17}$

Superconductivity in quasi-one-dimensional Li$_{0.9}$Mo$_6$O$_{17}$ emerges from an exotic, non-metallic normal state that exhibits signatures of Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid behavior, emergent symmetry and excitonic order. The high upper critical field, $H_{c2}$, in Li$_{0.9}$Mo$_6$O$_{17}$ suggests that that the favored pairing state is spin-triplet in nature. Here, we report measurements of the magnetic penetration depth down to $0.08\,\mathrm{K}$ ($T/T_c \lesssim 0.04$) and the specific heat down to $0.4\,\mathrm{K}$ ($T/T_c \lesssim 0.2$), and show that they are consistent with a moderately-coupled, fully-gapped superconducting state with marked gap anisotropy and a minimum ($Δ_{\rm min} \simeq 0.4\,k_{\mathrm{B}}T_c$) occurring over a very narrow region in $k$-space. Combined with knowledge of $H_{c2}$, these measurements support the presence of a nodeless and possibly odd-parity spin-triplet superconducting order parameter in Li$_{0.9}$Mo$_6$O$_{17}$.

cond-mat.supr-con

Observation of the Non-linear Meissner Effect

A long-standing theoretical prediction is that in clean, nodal unconventional superconductors the magnetic penetration depth $λ$, at zero temperature, varies linearly with magnetic field. This non-linear Meissner effect is an equally important manifestation of the nodal state as the well studied linear-in-$T$ dependence of $λ$, but has never been convincingly experimentally observed. Here we present measurements of the nodal superconductors CeCoIn$_5$ and LaFePO which clearly show this non-linear Meissner effect. We further show how the effect of a small dc magnetic field on $λ(T)$ can be used to distinguish gap nodes from non-nodal deep gap minima. Our measurements of KFe$_2$As$_2$ suggest that this material has such a non-nodal state.

cond-mat.supr-con