Crystal structure and superconducting properties of Sc5Ir6Sn18

Abstract

Sc5Ir6Sn18 crystallizes with a split variant of the Tb5Rh6Sn18 structure type (space group I41/acd, , ). DFT calculations confirmed the instability of the structural arrangement with the fully occupied and unsplit crystallographic sites. High quality single crystals were grown from a Sn melt. Sc5Ir6Sn18 is a diamagnetic metal showing a superconducting transition at a critical temperature K. The relatively low critical magnetic field 3.2 T as well as the obtained values of the specific heat ratio and energy-gap ratio suggest this system to be a weakly coupled BCS-like superconductor.