Superconductivity in heavy alkaline-Earth intercalated graphites

Abstract

We report the discovery of superconductivity below 1.65(6) K in Sr-intercalated graphite SrC(6), by susceptibility and specific heat (C(p)) measurements. In comparison with CaC(6), we found that the anisotropy of the upper critical fields for SrC(6) is much reduced. The C(p) anomaly at T(c) is smaller than the BCS prediction, indicating an anisotropic superconducting gap for SrC6 similar to CaC6. The significantly lower T(c) of SrC(6) as compared to CaC(6) can be understood in terms of "negative" pressure effects, which decreases the electron-phonon coupling for both in-plane intercalant and the out-of-plane C phonon modes. We observed no superconductivity for BaC(6) down to 0.3 K.