Superconductivity above 30K Achieved in Dense Scandium

Abstract

Superconductivity is one of most intriguing quantum phenomena, and the quest for elemental superconductors with high critical temperature ( T c ) is of great scientific significance due to their relatively simple material composition and the underlying mechanism. Here we report the experimental discovery of densely compressed scandium (Sc) becoming the first elemental superconductor with T c breaking into 30 K range, which is comparable to the T c values of the classic La–Ba–Cu–O or LaFeAsO superconductors. Our results show that <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mrow> <mml:msubsup> <mml:mi>T</mml:mi> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">c</mml:mi> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">onset</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> of Sc increases from ∼ 3 K at around 43 GPa to ∼ 32 K at about 283 GPa ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mrow> <mml:msubsup> <mml:mi>T</mml:mi> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">c</mml:mi> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">zero</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> <mml:mo>∼</mml:mo> <mml:mn>31</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> K), which is well above liquid neon temperature. Interestingly, measured T c shows no sign of saturation up to the maximum pressure achieved in our experiments, indicating that T c may be even higher upon further compression.