Controllable spin-orbit coupling and its influence on the upper critical field in the chemically doped quasi-one-dimensional Nb2PdS5 superconductor

By systematic chemical substitution of Pt and Ni in the newly discovered superconductor Nb2PdS5 (T-c similar to 6 K), we study the evolution of its superconducting properties with doping, focusing on the behavior of the upper critical field H-c2. In contrast to the previous results of Se doping on S sites, superconductivity is found to be rather robust against the Pt and Ni dopants on the one-dimensional Pd chains. Most strikingly, the reduced Hc(2), i.e., the ratio of H-c2/T-c, is seen to be significantly enhanced by the heavier Pt doping but suppressed in the Ni-doped counterparts, distinct from the nearly constant value in the Se-doped samples. Our findings therefore suggest that the upper critical field of this system can be modified in a tunable fashion by chemical doping on the Pd chains with elements of varying mass numbers. The spin-orbit coupling on the Pd sites, by inference, should play an important role in the observed superconductivity and on the large upper critical field beyond the Pauli pair-breaking field.