Project description:The search for high-temperature superconductivity is one of the research frontiers in physics. In the sulfur hydride system, an extremely high T c (∼200 K) has been recently developed at pressure. However, the Meissner effect measurement above megabar pressures is still a great challenge. Here, we report the superconductivity identification of sulfur hydride at pressure, employing an in situ alternating-current magnetic susceptibility technique. We determine the superconducting phase diagram, finding that superconductivity suddenly appears at 117 GPa and T c reaches 183 K at 149 GPa before decreasing monotonically with increasing pressure. By means of theoretical calculations, we elucidate the variation of T c in the low-pressure region in terms of the changing stoichiometry of sulfur hydride and the further decrease in T c owing to a drop in the electron-phonon interaction parameter λ. This work provides a new insight into clarifying superconducting phenomena and anchoring the superconducting phase diagram in the hydrides.
Project description:High pressure structure, stability, metallization, and superconductivity of PbH4(H2)2, a H2-containing compound combining one of the heaviest elements with the lightest element, are investigated by the first-principles calculations. The metallic character is found over the whole studied pressure range, although PbH4(H2)2 is metastable and easily decompose at low pressure. The decomposition pressure point of 133 GPa is predicted above which PbH4(H2)2 is stable both thermodynamically and dynamically with the C2/m symmetry. Interestedly, all hydrogen atoms pairwise couple into H2 quasi-molecules and remain this style up to 400 GPa in the C2/m structure. At high-pressure, PbH4(H2)2 tends to form the Pb-H2 alloy. The superconductivity of Tc firstly rising and then falling is observed in the C2/m PbH4(H2)2. The maximum of Tc is about 107 K at 230 GPa. The softening of intermediate-frequency phonon induced by more inserted H2 molecules is the main origin of the high Tc. The results obtained represent a significant step toward the understanding of the high pressure behavior of metallic hydrogen and hydrogen-rich materials, which is helpful for obtaining the higher Tc.
Project description:The paper discusses fundamentals of record-TC superconductivity discovered under high pressure in sulfur hydride. The rapid increase of TC with pressure in the vicinity of Pcr ≈ 123GPa is interpreted as the fingerprint of a first-order structural transition. Based on the cubic symmetry of the high-TC phase, it is argued that the lower-TC phase has a different periodicity, possibly related to an instability with a commensurate structural vector. In addition to the acoustic branches, the phonon spectrum of H3S contains hydrogen modes with much higher frequencies. Because of the complex spectrum, usual methods of calculating TC are here inapplicable. A modified approach is formulated and shown to provide realistic values for TC and to determine the relative contributions of optical and acoustic branches. The isotope effect (change of TC upon Deuterium for Hydrogen substitution) originates from high frequency phonons and differs in the two phases. The decrease of TC following its maximum in the high-TC phase is a sign of intermixing with pairing at hole-like pockets which arise in the energy spectrum of the cubic phase at the structural transition. On-pockets pairing leads to the appearance of a second gap and is remarkable for its non-adiabatic regime: hydrogen mode frequencies are comparable to the Fermi energy.
Project description:The pursuit of room-temperature superconductivity at an accessible synthetic pressure has been a long-held dream for both theoretical and experimental physicists. Recently, a controversial report by Dasenbrock-Gammon et al. claims that the nitrogen-doped lutetium trihydride exhibits room-temperature superconductivity at near-ambient pressure. However, many researchers have failed to independently reproduce these results, which has sparked intense skepticism on this report. In this work, a LuH2±xNy sample is fabricated using high-pressure and high-temperature methods. The composition and structural characterization are the same as the aforementioned near-ambient superconductor. In situ X-ray diffraction investigations indicate that a high-pressure phase transition toward Fm 3¯$\bar{3}$ m-LuH3±xNy occurred in the sample at 59 GPa. The temperature-dependent resistance measurements reveal that two possible superconductivity transition are observed at 95 GPa, with Tc1 ≈6.5 K for high-Tc phase and Tc2 ≈2.1 K for low-Tc phase, arising from the disparate phases in the sample. Resistivity measurements in the Fm 3¯$\bar{3}$ m-LuH3±xNy phase under varying magnetic fields exhibited characteristics consistent with superconductivity, with an upper critical field μ0Hc2(0) of 3.3 T measured at 163 GPa. This work is expected to shed some light on the controversy surrounding superconductivity in the nitrogen-doped lutetium hydride system.
Project description:In low-dimensional electron systems, charge density waves (CDW) and superconductivity are two of the most fundamental collective quantum phenomena. For all known quasi-two-dimensional superconductors, the origin and exact boundary of the electronic orderings and superconductivity are still attractive problems. Through transport and thermodynamic measurements, we report on the field-temperature phase diagram in 2H-TaS2 single crystals. We show that the superconducting transition temperature (Tc) increases by one order of magnitude from temperatures at 0.98 K up to 9.15 K at 8.7 GPa when the Tc becomes very sharp. Additionally, the effects of 8.7 GPa illustrate a suppression of the CDW ground state, with critically small Fermi surfaces. Below the Tc the lattice of magnetic flux lines melts from a solid-like state to a broad vortex liquid phase region. Our measurements indicate an unconventional s-wave-like picture with two energy gaps evidencing its multi-band nature.
Project description:Based on first-principles calculations, the properties of B-doped graphane under high pressure up to 380 GPa are investigated. We find that B-doped graphane undergoes a phase transition from phase-α to phase-β at 6 GPa. Different from pristine graphane (X. Wen, L. Hand, V. Labet, T. Yang, R. Hoffmann, N. W. Ashcroft, A. R. Oganov and A. O. Lyakhov, Graphane sheets and crystals under pressure, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A., 2011, 108, 6833-6837), phase-γ of B-doped graphane is kinetically unstable. The calculated superconducting transition temperature of B-doped graphane at ambient pressure is 45 K, and pressurization can increase the transition temperature notably, e.g., 77 K at 100 GPa. Both the electronic states at the Fermi level and the electron-phonon coupling are mainly contributed by B-C characteristics, indicating that the B-doping plays a key role in the superconductivity.
Project description:Nitrogen oxides are textbook class of molecular compounds, with extensive industrial applications. Nitrogen and oxygen are also among the most abundant elements in the universe. We explore the N-O system at 0 K and up to 500 GPa though ab initio evolutionary simulations. Results show that two phase transformations of stable molecular NO2 occur at 7 and 64 GPa, and followed by decomposition of NO2 at 91 GPa. All of the NO(+)NO3(-) structures are found to be metastable at T = 0 K, so experimentally reported ionic NO(+)NO3(-) is either metastable or stabilized by temperature. N2O5 becomes stable at 9 GPa, and transforms from P-1 to C2/c structure at 51 GPa. NO becomes thermodynamically stable at 198 GPa. This polymeric phase is superconducting (Tc = 2.0 K) and contains a -N-N- backbone.
Project description:Spin triplet superconductivity in the Kondo lattice UTe2 appears to be associated with spin fluctuations originating from incipient ferromagnetic order. Here we show clear evidence of twofold enhancement of superconductivity under pressure, which discontinuously transitions to magnetic order, likely of ferromagnetic nature, at higher pressures. The application of a magnetic field tunes the system back across a first-order phase boundary. Straddling this phase boundary, we find another example of reentrant superconductivity in UTe2. As the superconductivity and magnetism exist on two opposite sides of the first-order phase boundary, our results indicate other microscopic mechanisms may be playing a role in stabilizing spin triplet superconductivity in addition to spin fluctuations associated with magnetism.
Project description:Hydrogen and hydride materials have long been considered promising materials for high-temperature superconductivity. However, the extreme pressures required for the metallization of hydrogen-based superconductors limit their applications. Here, a series of high-temperature perovskite hydrides is designed that can be stable within 10 GPa. The research covered 182 ternary systems and ultimately determined that eight new compounds are stable within 20 GPa, of which five exhibited superconducting transition temperatures exceeding 120 K within 10 GPa, including KGaH3 (146 K at 10 GPa), RbInH3 (130 K at 6 GPa), CsInH3 (153 K at 9 GPa), RbTlH3 (170 K at 4 GPa) and CsTlH3 (163 K at 7 GPa). Excitingly, KGaH3 and RbGaH3 are thermodynamically stable at 50 GPa. Among these perovskite hydrides, alkali metals are responsible for providing a fixed amount of charge and supporting alloy framework composed of hydrogen and IIIA group elements to maintain stable crystal structure, while the cubic hydrogen alloy framework formed by IIIA group elements and hydrogen is crucial for high-temperature superconductivity. This work will inspire further experimental exploration and take an important step in the exploration of low-pressure stable high-temperature superconductors.
Project description:With the motivation of discovering high-temperature superconductors, evolutionary algorithm USPEX is employed to search for all stable compounds in the Sn-H system. In addition to the traditional SnH4, new hydrides SnH8, SnH12 and SnH14 are found to be thermodynamically stable at high pressure. Dynamical stability and superconductivity of tin hydrides are systematically investigated. I4m2-SnH8, C2/m-SnH12 and C2/m-SnH14 exhibit higher superconducting transition temperatures of 81, 93 and 97 K compared to the traditional compound SnH4 with Tc of 52 K at 200 GPa. An interesting bent H3-group in I4m2-SnH8 and novel linear H in C2/m-SnH12 are observed. All the new tin hydrides remain metallic over their predicted range of stability. The intermediate-frequency wagging and bending vibrations have more contribution to electron-phonon coupling parameter than high-frequency stretching vibrations of H2 and H3.