Non-conventional superconductivity in magnetic In and Sn nanoparticles

Ma-Hsuan Ma; Erdembayalag Batsaikhan; Huang-Nan Chen; Ting-Yang Chen; Chi-Hung Lee; Wen-Hsien Li; Chun-Ming Wu; Chin-Wei Wang

doi:10.1038/s41598-022-04889-6

Non-conventional superconductivity in magnetic In and Sn nanoparticles

Sci Rep. 2022 Jan 14;12(1):775. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-04889-6.

Authors

Ma-Hsuan Ma¹, Erdembayalag Batsaikhan¹, Huang-Nan Chen¹, Ting-Yang Chen¹, Chi-Hung Lee¹, Wen-Hsien Li², Chun-Ming Wu³, Chin-Wei Wang³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, National Central University, Zhongli, 32001, Taiwan.
² Department of Physics, National Central University, Zhongli, 32001, Taiwan. whli@phy.ncu.edu.tw.
³ National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center, Hsinchu, 30076, Taiwan.

Abstract

We report on experimental evidence of non-conversional pairing in In and Sn nanoparticle assemblies. Spontaneous magnetizations are observed, through extremely weak-field magnetization and neutron-diffraction measurements, to develop when the nanoparticles enter the superconducting state. The superconducting transition temperature T_C shifts to a noticeably higher temperature when an external magnetic field or magnetic Ni nanoparticles are introduced into the vicinity of the superconducting In or Sn nanoparticles. There is a critical magnetic field and a critical Ni composition that must be reached before the magnetic environment will suppress the superconductivity. The observations may be understood when assuming development of spin-parallel superconducting pairs on the surfaces and spin-antiparallel superconducting pairs in the core of the nanoparticles.