Superconductivity in the bcc‐Type High‐Entropy Alloy TiHfNbTaMo
Lingyong Zeng, Jie Zhan, Mebrouka Boubeche, Kuan Li, Longfu Li, Peifeng Yu, Kangwang Wang, Chao Zhang, Kui Jin, Yan Sun, Huixia Luo
Abstract
Abstract X‐ray powder diffraction, electrical resistivity, magnetization, and thermodynamic measurements are conducted to investigate the structure and superconducting properties of TiHfNbTaMo, a novel high‐entropy alloy possessing a valence electron count (VEC) of 4.8. The TiHfNbTaMo HEA is discovered to have a body‐centered cubic structure (space group ) with lattice parameters a = 3.445 (1) Å and a microscopically homogeneous distribution of the constituent elements. This material shows type‐II superconductivity with T c = 3.42 K, lower critical field µ 0 H c1 (0) = 22.8 mT, and upper critical field µ 0 H c2 (0) = 3.95 T. Low‐temperature specific heat measurements show that the alloy is a conventional s‐wave type with a moderately coupled superconductor. First‐principles calculations show that the density of states (DOS) of the TiHfNbTaMo alloy is dominated by hybrid d orbitals of these five metal elements. Additionally, the TiHfNbTaMo HEA exhibits three van Hove singularities. Furthermore, the VEC and the composition of the elements (especially the Nb elemental content) affect the T c of the bcc‐type HEA.