Evidence of a distinct collective mode in Kagome superconductors
Bin Hu, Hui Chen, Yuhan Ye, Zihao Huang, Xianghe Han, Zhen Zhao, Hongqin Xiao, Xiao Lin, Haitao Yang, Ziqiang Wang, Hong-Jun Gao
Abstract
Abstract The collective modes of the superconducting order parameter fluctuation can provide key insights into the nature of the superconductor. Recently, a family of superconductors has emerged in non-magnetic kagome materials A V 3 Sb 5 ( A = K, Rb, Cs), exhibiting fertile emergent phenomenology. However, the collective behaviors of Cooper pairs have not been studied. Here, we report a distinct collective mode in CsV 3- x Ta x Sb 5 using scanning tunneling microscope/spectroscopy. The spectral line-shape is well-described by one isotropic and one anisotropic superconducting gap, and a bosonic mode due to electron-mode coupling. With increasing x , the two gaps move closer in energy, merge into two isotropic gaps of equal amplitude, and then increase synchronously. The mode energy decreases monotonically to well below $${{2}}{{\Delta }}$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> <mml:mi>Δ</mml:mi> </mml:math> and survives even after the charge density wave order is suppressed. We propose the interpretation of this collective mode as Leggett mode between different superconducting components or the Bardasis-Schrieffer mode due to a subleading superconducting component.