3 research outputs found
Discovery of Superconductivity and Electron-Phonon Drag in the Non-Centrosymmetric Semimetal LaRhGe
We present a comprehensive study of the non-centrosymmetric semimetal
LaRhGe. Our transport measurements reveal evidence for electron-hole
compensation at low temperatures, resulting in a large magnetoresistance of
3000% at 1.8 K and 14 T. The carrier concentration is on the order of
, higher than typical semimetals. We predict theoretically
the existence of Weyl nodal lines that are protected
by the tetragonal space group. We discover superconductivity for the first time
in this compound with a of 0.39(1) K and of
2.1(1) mT, with evidence from specific heat and transverse-field muon spin
relaxation (). LaRhGe is a weakly-coupled type-I
superconductor, and we find no evidence for time-reversal symmetry breaking in
our zero-field . We study the electrical transport in the normal
state and find an unusual dependence at low temperature while
Seebeck coefficient and thermal conductivity measurements reveal a peak in the
same temperature range. We conclude that the transport properties of LaRhGe
in its normal state are strongly influenced by electron-phonon interactions.
Furthermore, we examine the temperature dependent Raman spectra of LaRhGe
and find that the lifetime of the lowest energy phonon is dominated by
phonon-electron scattering instead of anharmonic decay