The calcium superhydrides are synthesized at high pressure of 180 GPa and 1000 degree high temperatures. Superconductivity with Tc onset about 210 K is realized in thus obtained hydrogen rich calcium compounds at high pressure. The critical magnetic field Hc2(T) is estimated to around 166 T in the Ginzburg Landau model.
The discoveries of high-temperature superconductivity in H3S and LaH10 have excited the search for superconductivity in compressed hydrides. In contrast to rapidly expanding theoretical studies, high-pressure experiments on hydride superconductors are expensive and technically challenging. Here we experimentally discover superconductivity in two new phases,Fm-3m-CeH10 (SC-I phase) and P63/mmc-CeH9 (SC-II phase) at pressures that are much lower (<100 GPa) than those needed to stabilize other polyhydride superconductors. Superconductivity was evidenced by a sharp drop of the electrical resistance to zero, and by the decrease of the critical temperature in deuterated samples and in an external magnetic field. SC-I has Tc=115 K at 95 GPa, showing expected decrease on further compression due to decrease of the electron-phonon coupling (EPC) coefficient {lambda} (from 2.0 at 100 GPa to 0.8 at 200 GPa). SC-II has Tc = 57 K at 88 GPa, rapidly increasing to a maximum Tc ~100 K at 130 GPa, and then decreasing on further compression. This maximum of Tc is due to a maximum of {lambda} at the phase transition from P63/mmc-CeH9 into a symmetry-broken modification C2/c-CeH9. The pressure-temperature conditions of synthesis affect the actual hydrogen content, and the actual value of Tc. Anomalously low pressures of stability of cerium superhydrides make them appealing for studies of superhydrides and for designing new superhydrides with even lower pressures of stability.
We report superconductivity in as synthesized Nb2PdSe5, which is similar to recently discovered Nb2PdS5 compound having very high upper critical field, clearly above the Pauli paramagnetic limit [Sci. Rep. 3, 1446 (2013)]. A bulk polycrystalline Nb2PdSe5 sample is synthesized by solid state reaction route in phase pure structure. The structural characterization has been done by X ray diffraction, followed by Rietveld refinements, which revealed that Nb2PdSe5 sample is crystallized in monoclinic structure with in space group C2/m. Structural analysis revealed the formation of sharing of one dimensional PdSe2 chains. Electrical and magnetic measurements confirmed superconductivity in Nb2PdSe5 compound at 5.5K. Detailed magneto-resistance results, exhibited the value of upper critical field to be around 8.2Tesla. The estimated Hc2(0) is within Pauli Paramagnetic limit, which is unlike the Nb2PdS5.
We report here that a new superconducting phase with much higher Tc has been found in K intercalated FeSe compound with excess Fe. We successfully grew crystals by precisely controlling the starting amount of Fe. Besides the superconducting (SC) transition at ~30 K, we observed a sharp drop in resistivity and a kink in susceptibility at 44 K. By combining thermodynamic measurements with electron spin resonance (ESR), we demonstrate that this is a new SC transition. Structural analysis unambiguously reveals two phases coexisting in the crystals, which are responsible respectively for the SC transitions at 30 and 44 K. The structural experiments and first-principles calculations consistently indicate that the 44 K SC phase is close to a 122 structure, but with an unexpectedly large c-axis of 18.10 {AA}. We further find a novel monotonic dependence of the maximum Tc on the separation of neighbouring FeSe layers.
Single-layer FeSe films grown on the SrTiO3 substrate (FeSe/STO) have attracted much attention because of their possible record-high superconducting critical temperature Tc and distinct electronic structures in iron-based superconductors. However, it has been under debate on how high its Tc can really reach due to the inconsistency of the results obtained from the transport, magnetic and spectroscopic measurements. Here we report spectroscopic evidence of superconductivity pairing at 83 K in single-layer FeSe/STO films. By preparing high-quality single-layer FeSe/STO films, we observe for the first time strong superconductivity-induced Bogoliubov back-bending bands that extend to rather high binding energy ~100 meV by high-resolution angle-resolved photoemission measurements. The Bogoliubov back-bending band provides a new definitive benchmark of superconductivity pairing that is directly observed up to 83 K in the single-layer FeSe/STO films. Moreover, we find that the superconductivity pairing state can be further divided into two temperature regions of 64-83 K and below 64 K. We propose the 64-83 K region may be attributed to superconductivity fluctuation while the region below 64 K corresponds to the realization of long-range superconducting phase coherence. These results indicate that either Tc as high as 83 K is achievable in iron-based superconductors, or there is a pseudogap formation from superconductivity fluctuation in single-layer FeSe/STO films.
Here we report the preparation and superconductivity of the 133-type Cr-based quasi-one-dimensional (Q1D) RbCr3As3 single crystals. The samples were prepared by the deintercalation of Rb+ ions from the 233-type Rb2Cr3As3 crystals which were grown from a high-temperature solution growth method. The RbCr3As3 compound crystallizes in a centrosymmetric structure with the space group of P63/m (No. 176) different with its non-centrosymmetric Rb2Cr3As3 superconducting precursor, and the refined lattice parameters are a = 9.373(3) {AA} and c = 4.203(7) {AA}. Electrical resistivity and magnetic susceptibility characterizations reveal the occurrence of superconductivity with an interestingly higher onset Tc of 7.3 K than other Cr-based superconductors, and a high upper critical field Hc2(0) near 70 T in this 133-type RbCr3As3 crystals.