Superconductivity in the Endohedral Ga Cluster Compound PdGa<sub>5</sub>
Zuzanna Ryżyńska, Piotr Wiśniewski, D. Kaczorowski, Weiwei Xie, R. J. Cava, Tomasz Klimczuk, Michał J. Winiarski
Abstract
Superconductivity is observed below T<sub>c</sub> = 1.6 K in an endohedral Ga cluster compound PdGa<sub>5</sub> using magnetization and heat capacity measurements. Electronic structure calculations show that the density of states (DOS) at the Fermi level is dominated by Ga s and p states and that the overall shape of DOS is similar to what was found in other endohedral Ga cluster superconductors, such as Mo<sub>x</sub>Ga<sub>5x+1</sub>, ReGa<sub>5</sub>, and T<sub>2</sub>Ga<sub>9</sub> (T = Rh and Ir). Our results provide a more complete picture of the relationship between the valence electron count and superconductivity in the family of endohedral Ga cluster superconductors.