Presented thesis focuses on the study of transport properties of two intermetallic compounds, CeRhSi3 and CeCuAl3, under high external pressure. High-pressure dependence of previously reported pressure induced superconductivity in CeRhSi3 is studied closely up to 4.6 GPa, focusing on the, so-far-unstudied, pressure region above 3 GPa. After reaching maximal value at 2.9 GPa, the critical temperature of superconducting transition is gradually suppressed by further pressure application. Extensive search for possible pressure induced superconductivity in CeCuAl3 is conducted, employing solid-pressure-medium Bridgman anvil cells with theoretical pressure limit of 12 GPa. No pressure induced superconductivity is observed up to 4.5 GPa and down to 8 mK. Additionally, a calibration study of three liquid pressure exchange media from Daphne Oil 7000 series is carried out in order to advance high pressure experimental techniques. Comprehensive results about hydrostaticity, solidification, pressure drop and compressibility of individual pressure media are presented.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(理学) / 甲第23688号 / 理博第4778号 / 新制||理||1684(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院理学研究科物理学・宇宙物理学専攻 / (主査)教授 柳瀬 陽一, 教授 川上 則雄, 教授 松田 祐司 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

Abstract After the discovery of topological insulators (TIs), it has come to be widely recognized that topological states of matter can actually be widespread. In this sense, TIs have established a new paradigm about topological materials. Recent years have seen a surge of interest in topological semimetals, which embody two different ways of generalizing the effectively massless electrons to bulk materials. Dirac and, particularly, Weyl semimetals should support several transport and optical phenomena that are still being sought in experiments. A number of promising experimental results indicate superconductivity in members of half-Hesuler semimetals which realize the mixing singlet and triplet pairing symmetry. We now turn to results we got through the work on topological semimetals. This work presents quantum high field transports on Dirac and Weyl topological semimetals including Sr1-yMn1-zSb2 (y, z < 0.1), YbMnBi2 and TaP. In case of Sr1-yMn1-zSb2 (y, z < 0.1), massless relativistic fermion was reported with m* = 0.04-0.05m0. This material presented a ferromagnetic order for in 304 K < T < 565 K, but a canted antiferromagnetic order with a net ferromagnetic component for T < 304 K. These are considered striking features of Dirac fermions For YbMnBi2, we reported the unusual interlayer quantum transport behavior in magnetoresistivity, resulting from the zeroth LL mode observed in this time reversal symmetry breaking type II Weyl semimetal. Also, for Weyl semimetal TaP the measurements probed multiple Fermi pockets, from which nontrivial π Berry phase and Zeeman splitting were extracted. Our ultra-low penetration depth measurements on half-Heuslers YPdBi and TbPdBi revealed a power- law behavior with n= 2.76 ± 0.04 for YPdBi samples and n=2.6 ± 0.3 for TbPdBi sample. We may conclude the exponent n > 2 implies nodless superconducting gap in our samples. Also, we found that despite the increase in magnetic correlations from YPdBi to TbPdBi, superconductivity remains robust in both systems which indicates that AF fluctuations do not play a major role in superconducting mechanism.