Superconductivity on a Bi Square Net in LiBi

Karolina Górnicka; Sylwia Gutowska; Michał J Winiarski; Bartlomiej Wiendlocha; Weiwei Xie; R J Cava; Tomasz Klimczuk

doi:10.1021/acs.chemmater.0c00179

Superconductivity on a Bi Square Net in LiBi

Chem Mater. 2020 Apr 14;32(7):3150-3159. doi: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.0c00179. Epub 2020 Mar 16.

Authors

Karolina Górnicka^{1

2}, Sylwia Gutowska³, Michał J Winiarski^{1

2}, Bartlomiej Wiendlocha³, Weiwei Xie⁴, R J Cava⁵, Tomasz Klimczuk^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Applied Physics and Mathematics, Gdansk University of Technology, ul. Narutowicza 11/12, 80-233 Gdańsk, Poland.
² Advanced Materials Centre, Gdansk University of Technology, ul. Narutowicza 11/12, 80-233 Gdańsk, Poland.
³ Faculty of Physics and Applied Computer Science, AGH University of Science and Technology, Aleja Mickiewicza 30, 30-059 Kraków, Poland.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge Louisiana 70803, United States.
⁵ Department of Chemistry, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, United States.

Abstract

We present the crystallographic analysis, superconducting characterization and theoretical modeling of LiBi, that contains the lightest and the heaviest nonradioactive metal. The compound crystallizes in a tetragonal (CuAu-type) crystal structure with Bi square nets separated by Li planes (parameters a = 3.3636(1) Å and c = 4.2459(2) Å, c/a = 1.26). Superconducting state was studied in detail by magnetic susceptibility and heat capacity measurements. The results reveal that LiBi is a moderately coupled type-I superconductor (λ_e-p = 0.66) with T _c = 2.48 K and a thermodynamic critical field H_c(0) = 157 Oe. Theoretical studies show that bismuth square net is responsible for superconductivity in this compound, but the coupling between the Li planes and Bi planes makes a significant contribution to the superconductivity.