Electronic Properties of BaPtP with a Noncentrosymmetric Cubic Crystal Structure

We report the synthesis, electronic properties, and electronic structure of LaIrSi-type BaPtP with a noncentrosymmetric cubic crystal structure. Electrical resistivity and heat capacity data taken by using polycrystalline samples indicated that BaPtP is a metal, which was further supported by first principles calculations. A polycrystalline sample of BaPtP showed a zero resistivity below 0.2 K due to the superconducting transition. The first principles calculation results indicated that the spin splitting at around the Fermi energy is large in BaPtP. These results suggest that BaPtP is likely to exhibit interesting physical properties caused by a strong spin-orbit coupling of 5d electrons in the Pt atoms.