Probing p-wave superconductivity in UTe_2 via point-contact junctions

Here we perform a spectroscopic study of the ambient pressure superconducting phase of UTe_2, 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 p-wave pairing, we can extract gap amplitude and interface barrier strength for each junction, and best model the data with a purely p_y-wave gap function with amplitude in the range 0.2 - 0.35 meV. Our work provides a spectroscopic confirmation of the spin-triplet superconducting gap in UTe_2, and confirms that a topologically non-trivial superconducting order parameter is likely.