Road to Room-Temperature Superconductivity: Tc above 260 K in Lanthanum Superhydride under Pressure

Abstract: The use of high pressure to realize superconductivity in the vicinity of room temperature has a long history, much of it focused on achieving this in hydrogen rich materials. This paper provides a brief overview of the work presented at this May 2018 conference, together with background on motivation and techniques, the theoretical predictions of superconductivity in lanthanum hydride, and the subsequent experimental confirmation. Theoretical calculations using density functional based structure search methods combined with BCS type models predicted a new class of dense, hydrogen rich materials superhydrides with superconducting critical temperatures in the vicinity of room temperature at and above 200 GPa pressures. The existence of a series of these phases in the La H system was subsequently confirmed experimentally, and techniques were developed for their syntheses and characterization, including measurements of structural and transport properties, at megabar pressures. Four probe electrical transport measurements of a cubic phase identified as LaH10 display signatures of superconductivity at temperatures above 260 K near 200 GPa. The results are supported by pseudo four probe conductivity measurements, critical current determinations, low-temperature xray diffraction, and magnetic susceptibility measurements. The measured high Tc is in excellent agreement with the original calculations. The experiments also reveal additional superconducting phases with Tc between 150 K and above 260 K. This effort highlights the novel physics in hydrogen-rich materials at high densities, the success of materials by design in the discovery and creation of new materials, and the possibility of new classes of superconductors Tc at and above room temperature.