Singlet-triplet mixing in the order parameter of the noncentrosymmetric superconductor Ru7 B3

Abstract

One of the key effects which is predicted to arise in superconductors without a center of inversion is the mixing of singlet and triplet order parameters, which are no longer good quantum numbers on their own due to parity. We have probed the gap structure in the noncentrosymmetric superconductor Ru7B3, through small-angle neutron diffraction from the vortex lattice, in order to search for the proposed mixed order parameter. We find that the measured temperature dependence of the vortex-lattice form factor is well characterized by a model constructed to describe the effects of broken inversion symmetry on the superconducting state, indicating the presence of a mixed singlet-triplet gap and confirming the theoretical predictions.