Type-II character and anisotropic superconductivity in natural superconducting covellite

doi:10.1088/1674-1056/ae23b2

Abstract We report a comprehensive investigation of the superconducting properties of the mineral superconductor covellite (CuS) using high-quality single crystals. First, we establish that CuS is an intrinsic type-II superconductor, correcting its long-standing classification as type-I. Second, a complete set of anisotropic superconducting parameters is determined, including the critical fields, penetration depth and coherence length, which yield a Ginzburg-Landau parameter κ~1.5 and a moderate anisotropy of γ~2. Our results indicate that this type-II superconductivity can be well-described by a conventional, weak-coupling, single-band s-wave pairing mechanism. This work fills a long-standing gap in the understanding of this archetypal superconductor.

Keywords: type-II superconductivity critical parameters anisotropy covellite

Received: 20 November 2025
Accepted manuscript online: 25 November 2025

PACS:

74.25.-q

(Properties of superconductors)

Fund: We are grateful for the enlightening discussions with Prof. Zhongxian Zhao. This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant Nos. 2024YFA1611102, 2022YFA1403903, 2022YFA1602802, and 2023YFA1406101), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 12304075), and CAS Project for Young Scientists in Basic Research (Grant No. 2022YSBR-048).

Cite this article:

Zouyouwei Lu(鲁邹有为), Yuhang Zhang(张宇航), Qiming Zhang(张栖铭), Xinyi Zheng(郑新义), Ningning Wang(王宁宁), Jihu Lu(卢佶虎), Jiali Liu(刘家利), Feng Wu(吴凤), Chengjie Xu(徐诚杰), Yunzhenshan Gao(高运蓁山), Hua Zhang(张华), Jianping Sun(孙建平), Jin-Guang Cheng(程金光), Guangtong Liu(刘广同), Ziyi Liu(刘子儀), and Xiaoli Dong(董晓莉) Type-II character and anisotropic superconductivity in natural superconducting covellite 2026 Chin. Phys. B 35 027405

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