Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS March Meeting 2021
Volume 66, Number 1
Monday–Friday, March 15–19, 2021; Virtual; Time Zone: Central Daylight Time, USA
Session S23: Materials in Extremes: Towards Room-Temperature Superconductivity
11:30 AM–2:30 PM,
Thursday, March 18, 2021
Sponsoring
Unit:
GSCCM
Chair: Graeme Ackland, Univ of Edinburgh
Abstract: S23.00010 : New Frontiers in Superconductivity: Superhydrides at High Pressures*
1:42 PM–2:18 PM
Live
Presenter:
Ranga P Dias
(University of Rochester)
Author:
Ranga P Dias
(University of Rochester)
temperature superconductivity (RTSC). More than a century of rigorous research has led
physicists to believe that the highest T c that can be achieved is 40 K for conventional
superconductors. However, the discovery of superconductivity in hydrogen sulfide (H 2 S) at 203
K changed the notion of what might be possible for phonon–mediated superconductors. As H 2 S
readily mixes with hydrogen to form guest-host structures at lower pressures, the comparable
size of methane (CH 4 ) to H 2 S should allow molecular exchange within a large assemblage of van
der Waals solids that are (highly) hydrogen-rich with H 2 inclusions that are then the building
blocks for novel superconducting compounds at extreme conditions. Here, we report
superconductivity in a photochemically transformed carbonaceous sulfur hydride system with a
maximum superconducting transition temperature of 287.7 ± 1.2 K (~15° C) achieved at 267 ±
10 GPa. Superconductivity is established by the observation of zero resistance, magnetic
susceptibility of up to 190 GPa, and reduction of the transition temperature under an external
magnetic field of up to 9 T, with an upper critical magnetic field of about 62 T according to the
Ginzburg–Landau model at zero temperature. The Raman spectroscopy is used to probe the
chemical and structural transformations before metallization. The discovery achieves the more
than a century long quest to find room temperature superconductivity, a phenomenon that was
first observed by Kamerlingh Onnes in 1911.
*This research was supported by NSF, Grant No. DMR-1809649, and DOE Stockpile
Stewardship Academic Alliance Program, Grant No. DE-NA0003898.
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