Superconductivity in centrosymmetric topological superconductor candidate TaC

We report the synthesis and physical properties of the single crystals of TaC, which are proposed to hold topological band structure as a topological superconductor (TSC) candidate. Magnetization, resistivity and specific heat measurements are performed and indicate that TaC is bulk superconductor with critical temperature of 10.3 K. TaC is a strongly coupled type-II superconductor and the superconducting state can be well described by s-wave Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory with a single gap. The upper critical field (H-c2) of TaC shows linear temperature dependence, which is quite different from most conventional superconductors and isostructural NbC, which is proposed to manifest topological nodal-loops or type-II Dirac points as well as superconductivity. Our results suggest that TaC would be a new candidate for further research of TSCs.

Automated summary

We report the synthesis and physical properties of single crystals of TaC, a proposed topological superconductor candidate with a critical temperature of 10.3 K. TaC is a bulk superconductor described by s-wave BCS theory with a single gap, and exhibits linear temperature dependence in the upper critical field (H-c2), distinguishing it from most conventional superconductors. This suggests TaC as a new candidate for further research in topological superconductors.