Giant enhancement of superconducting critical temperature in substitutional alloy (La,Ce)H₉.

ABSTRACT: A sharp focus of current research on superconducting superhydrides is to raise their critical temperature T_c at moderate pressures. Here, we report a discovery of giant enhancement of T_c in CeH₉ obtained via random substitution of half Ce by La, leading to equal-atomic (La,Ce)H₉ alloy stabilized by maximum configurational entropy, containing the LaH₉ unit that is unstable in pure compound form. The synthesized (La,Ce)H₉ alloy exhibits T_c of 148-178 K in the pressure range of 97-172 GPa, representing up to 80% enhancement of T_c compared to pure CeH₉ and showcasing the highest T_c at sub-megabar pressure among the known superhydrides. This work demonstrates substitutional alloying as

SUBMITTER: Bi J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9551097 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature