Probing p-wave superconductivity in UTe2 via point-contact junctions

Uranium ditelluride (UTe₂) is the strongest contender to date for a <i>p</i>-wave superconductor in bulk form. Here we perform a spectroscopic study of the ambient pressure superconducting phase of UTe₂, measuring conductance through point-contact junctions formed by metallic contacts on different crystalline facets down to 250 mK and up to 18 T. Fitting a range of qualitatively varying spectra with a Blonder-Tinkham-Klapwijk (BTK) model for <i>p</i>-wave pairing, we can extract gap amplitude and interface barrier strength for each junction. We find good agreement with the data for a dominant <i>p</i> _<i>y</i> -wave gap function with amplitude 0.26 ± 0.06 meV. Our work provides spectroscopic evidence for a gap structure consistent with the proposed spin-triplet pairing in the superconducting state of UTe₂.