Superconducting properties of MgCu-type Laves phase compounds SrRh and BaRh.

We report a systematic study on the superconducting properties of MgCu-type Laves phase compounds SrRh and BaRh. SrRh and BaRh exhibit superconducting transitions atT = 5.4 K and 5.6 K, respectively. The zero-temperature upper critical field μ H (0) and lower critical field μ H (0) are estimated to be 4.01(5) T and 10.1(3) mT for SrRh, when both values are 4.63(5) T and 5.3(1) mT for BaRh, indicating that they are type-II superconductors. The large specific heat jump combined with the strong electron-phonon coupling strength λ suggests that they are intermediately coupled BCS bulk superconductors.