Experimental signatures of nodeless multiband superconductivity in a $$\hbox {2H-Pd}_{0.08} \hbox {TaSe}_2$$ single crystal

Abstract

AbstractIn order to understand the superconducting gap nature of a $$\hbox {2H-Pd}_{0.08} \hbox {TaSe}_2$$ 2H-Pd 0.08 TaSe 2 single crystal with $$T_{c} = 3.13 \text { K}$$ T c = 3.13 K , in-plane thermal conductivity $$\kappa $$ κ , in-plane London penetration depth $$\lambda _{\text {L}}$$ λ L , and the upper critical fields $$H_{c2}$$ H c 2 have been investigated. At zero magnetic field, it is found that no residual linear term $$\kappa _{0}/T$$ κ 0 / T exists and $$\lambda _{\text {L}}$$ λ L follows a power-law $$T^n$$ T n (T: temperature) with n = 2.66 at $$T \le \frac{1}{3}T_c$$ T ≤ 1 3 T c , supporting nodeless superconductivity. Moreover, the magnetic-field dependence of $$\kappa _{0}$$ κ 0 /T clearly shows a shoulder-like feature at a low field region. The temperature dependent $$H_{c2}$$ H c 2 curves for both in-plane and out-of-plane field directions exhibit clear upward curvatures near $$T_c$$ T c , consistent with the shape predicted by the two-band theory and the anisotropy ratio between the $$H_{c2}$$ H c 2 (T) curves exhibits strong temperature-dependence. All these results coherently suggest that $$\hbox {2H-Pd}_{0.08} \hbox {TaSe}_2$$ 2H-Pd 0.08 TaSe 2 is a nodeless, multiband superconductor.