Search for room-temperature superconductivity by using a diamond anvil cell

Tsu-Lien Hung^1*, C. Y. Liu¹, Min-Nan Ou¹, Wen-Pin Hsieh², Jung-Fu Lin³, Yang-Yuan Chen¹, Maw-Kuen Wu¹

¹Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
²Institute of Earth Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
³Department of Geological Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA

* Presenter:Tsu-Lien Hung, email:tlhung@gate.sinica.edu.tw

Searching for a room-temperature superconductor is the common dream of many scientists. Recently, a breakthrough work is the discovery of a lanthanum decahydride (LaH₁₀) system with Tc = 250 K under 170 GPa was reported in 2019 by Drozdov and Somayazulu et al[1,2]. In this year, the first room-temperature superconductivity has been discovered in a carbonaceous sulfur hydride with Tc of 287 K at 267 GPa [3]. These room-temperature superconductors need to be synthesized using the high-temperature and high-pressure synthesis method and need to be measured resistance under ultra-high pressure. Furthermore, the room-temperature superconductivity were hydrogen-rich materials in which hydrogen atoms provide the necessary high-frequency phonon modes as well as the strong electron-phonon coupling. Consequently, we not only constructed many diamond anvil cells for the high-pressure environments, a gas-loading system for hydrogen gas loading, and a laser-heating system for synthesis of metal polyhydrides materials but also developed the electrical resistance measurement using the van der pauw method for measuring the superconductivity property. Palladium hydride (PdH_x , x < 1) is a superconductor with Tc ~ 9 K at ambient pressure. We expect palladium polyhydrides can be synthesized through the high-temperature and high-pressure method. The Tc can be enhanced because of the increase of the hydrogen atom.

[1] A. P. Drozdov et al., Nature 569, 528 (2019)
[2] Maddury Somayazulu et al., Phys. Rev. Let. 122, 027001 (2019).
[3] Elliot Snider et al., Nature 586, 373 (2020).

Keywords: superconductivity, high pressure, room-temperature superconductivity