Nodeless electron pairing in CsV3Sb5-derived kagome superconductors

Abstract The newly discovered kagome superconductors represent a promising platform for investigating the quantum interplay between band topology, electronic order, and lattice geometry. Despite extensive research efforts on this system, the nature of the superconducting ground state remains elusive. In particular, consensus on the electron pairing symmetry has not been achieved so far, in part owing to the lack of a momentum-resolved measurement of the superconducting gap structure. Here we report the direct observation of a nodeless, nearly isotropic and orbital-independent superconducting gap in the momentum space of two exemplary CsV3Sb5-derived kagome superconductors — Cs(V0.93Nb0.07)3Sb5 and Cs(V0.86Ta0.14)3Sb5, using ultrahigh resolution and low temperature angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES). Remarkably, we find that such a gap structure is robust to the appearance or absence of charge order in the normal state, tuned by isovalent Nb/Ta substitutions of V. Moreover, the scaling ratio of gap versus superconducting transition temperature is close to the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) value, indicating a pairing in the weak-coupling regime. Our direct observation of the superconducting gap structure points to a persistent s-wave pairing in such kagome superconductors.