Pressure-induced monotonic enhancement of Tc to over 30 K in superconducting Pr0.82Sr0.18NiO2 thin films

Abstract

The successful synthesis of superconducting infinite-layer nickelate thin films with the highest T_c ≈ 15 K has ignited great enthusiasm for this material class as potential analogs of the high-T_c cuprates. Pursuing a higher T_c is always an imperative task in studying a new superconducting material system. Here we report high-quality Pr_0.82Sr_0.18NiO₂ thin films with T_c^onset ≈ 17 K synthesized by carefully tuning the amount of CaH₂ in the topotactic chemical reduction and the effect of pressure on its superconducting properties by measuring electrical resistivity under various pressures in a cubic anvil cell apparatus. We find that the onset temperature of the superconductivity, T_c^onset, can be enhanced monotonically from ~17 K at ambient pressure to ~31 K at 12.1 GPa without showing signatures of saturation upon increasing pressure. This encouraging result indicates that the T_c of infinite-layer nickelates superconductors still has room to go higher and it can be further boosted by applying higher pressures or strain engineering in the heterostructure films.