Fully gapped <i>d</i>-wave superconductivity in CeCu<sub>2</sub>Si<sub>2</sub>.
basic_science · Level V
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- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 29739886.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1073/pnas.1720291115 and PMC identifier 6003525.
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Abstract
The nature of the pairing symmetry of the first heavy fermion superconductor CeCu<sub>2</sub>Si<sub>2</sub> has recently become the subject of controversy. While CeCu<sub>2</sub>Si<sub>2</sub> was generally believed to be a d-wave superconductor, recent low-temperature specific heat measurements showed evidence for fully gapped superconductivity, contrary to the nodal behavior inferred from earlier results. Here, we report London penetration depth measurements, which also reveal fully gapped behavior at very low temperatures. To explain these seemingly conflicting results, we propose a fully gapped [Formula: see text] band-mixing pairing state for CeCu<sub>2</sub>Si<sub>2</sub>, which yields very good fits to both the superfluid density and specific heat, as well as accounting for a sign change of the superconducting order parameter, as previously concluded from inelastic neutron scattering results.