Physical properties and electronic band structure of noncentrosymmetric Th7Co3 superconductor

The physical properties of the noncentrosymmetric superconductor Th7Co3 have been investigated by means of ac-magnetic susceptibility, magnetization, specific heat, electrical resistivity, magnetoresistance and Hall effect measurements. From these data it is established that Th7Co3 is a dirty type-II superconductor with [Formula: see text] K, [Formula: see text] and moderate electron-phonon coupling [Formula: see text]. Some evidences for anisotropic superconducting gap are found, including e.g. reduced specific heat jump ([Formula: see text]) at T c, diminished superconducting energy gap ([Formula: see text]) as compared to the BCS values, power law field dependence of the Sommerfeld coefficient at 0.4 K ([Formula: see text]), and a concave curvature of the [Formula: see text] line. The magnitudes of the thermodynamic critical field and the energy gap are consistent with mean-squared anisotropy parameter [Formula: see text]. The electronic specific heat in the superconducting state is reasonably fitted to an oblate spheroidal gap model. Calculations of scalar relativistic and fully relativistic electronic band structures reveal considerable differences in the degenerate structure, resulting from asymmetric spin-orbit coupling (ASOC). A large splitting energy of spin-up spin-down bands at the Fermi level E F, [Formula: see text] meV is observed and a sizeable ratio [Formula: see text] could classify the studied compound into the class of noncentrosymmetric superconductors with strong ASOC. The noncentrosymmetry of the crystal structure and the atomic relativistic effects are both responsible for an importance of ASOC in Th7Co3. The calculated results for the density of states show a Van Hove singularity just below E F and dominant role of the 6d electrons of Th to the superconductivity.