Evidence of a distinct collective mode in Kagome superconductors.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 39030195.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-024-50330-z and PMC identifier 11271580.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
The collective modes of the superconducting order parameter fluctuation can provide key insights into the nature of the superconductor. Recently, a family of superconductors has emerged in non-magnetic kagome materials AV<sub>3</sub>Sb<sub>5</sub> (A = K, Rb, Cs), exhibiting fertile emergent phenomenology. However, the collective behaviors of Cooper pairs have not been studied. Here, we report a distinct collective mode in CsV<sub>3-x</sub>Ta<sub>x</sub>Sb<sub>5</sub> using scanning tunneling microscope/spectroscopy. The spectral line-shape is well-described by one isotropic and one anisotropic superconducting gap, and a bosonic mode due to electron-mode coupling. With increasing x, the two gaps move closer in energy, merge into two isotropic gaps of equal amplitude, and then increase synchronously. The mode energy decreases monotonically to well below <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mn>2</mn> <mi>Δ</mi></math> and survives even after the charge density wave order is suppressed. We propose the interpretation of this collective mode as Leggett mode between different superconducting components or the Bardasis-Schrieffer mode due to a subleading superconducting component.