Electronic band structure and superconducting properties of SnAs

We report a comprehensive study of physical properties of the binary superconductor compound SnAs. The electronic band structure of SnAs was investigated using both angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) in a wide binding energy range and density functional theory (DFT) within generalized gradient approximation (GGA). The DFT/GGA calculations were done including spin-orbit coupling for both bulk and (111) slab crystal structures. Comparison of the DFT/GGA band dispersions with ARPES data shows that the spectrum for the (111) slab much better describes ARPES data than that for the bulk. In addition, we studied experimentally superconducting properties of SnAs by specific heat, magnetic susceptibility, magnetotransport measurements, and Andreev reflection spectroscopy. Temperature dependencies of the superconducting gap and of the specific heat were found to be well consistent with those expected for the single band BCS superconductors with an isotropic s-wave order parameter. Despite spin-orbit coupling present in SnAs, our data show no signatures of a potential unconventional superconductivity, and the characteristic BCS ratio 2 Delta/T-c = 3.48-3.73 is very close to the BCS value in the weak coupling limit.