Effect of Mn impurities on the superconductivity in NaxCoO2 center dot yH(2)O

Abstract

To shed light on the symmetry of the superconducting order parameter in NaxCoO2 center dot yH(2)O, the Mn doping effects are studied. X-ray absorption spectroscopy verifies that the doped Mn impurities occupy the Co sites and are with a valance close to +4. Impurity scattering by Mn is in the unitary limit that, however, does not lead to strong T-c suppression. This absence of the strong impurity effects on T-c is inconsistent with the simple picture of a sign-changing order parameter. Coexistence of the s-wave superconducting order parameter and the nodal one is proposed to reconcile all the existing experiments and has been implied by the specific heat experiments.