Unconventional Heavy-Fermion Superconductivity of a New Transuranium Compound NpPd₅Al₂

Abstract

We succeeded in growing a new transuranium compound NpPd 5 Al 2 with the tetragonal crystal structure by the Pb-flux method, and measured the electrical resistivity, specific heat, magnetic susceptibility and magnetization. NpPd 5 Al 2 is found to be a paramagnetic heavy-fermion superconductor with strong coupling Δ C /γ T c = 2.33 [ T c =4.9 K and γ= 200 mJ/(K 2 ·mol)]. The upper critical field H c2 at 0 K is large and highly anisotropic: H c2 (0) =37 kOe for H ∥[100] and H c2 (0) =143 kOe for H ∥[001]. H c2 is found to be strongly suppressed by the magnetic field, and the magnetization curve indicates a step-like increase at H c2 , which are due to the paramagnetic effect. The low-temperature electronic specific heat approximately follows the T 3 -dependence, indicating the existence of point nodes in the energy gap. The d -wave superconductivity with point nodes is most likely realized in this compound.