Pressure-induced superconductivity in europium metal

Of the 52 known elemental superconductors among the 92 naturally occurring elements in the periodic table, fully 22 only become superconducting under sufficiently high pressure. In the rare-earth metals, the strong local magnetic moments originating from the 4f shell suppress superconductivity. For...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of physics. Conference series Vol. 215; no. 1
Main Authors Debessai, M, Matsuoka, T, Hamlin, J J, W Bi, Meng, Y, Shimizu, K, Schilling, J S
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Bristol IOP Publishing 24.05.2010
Subjects
Ambient temperature
Conduction bands
Europium
Magnetic moments
Periodic table
Phase transitions
Physics
Rare earth elements
Superconductivity
Superconductors
Synchrotron radiation
Synchrotrons
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Summary:Of the 52 known elemental superconductors among the 92 naturally occurring elements in the periodic table, fully 22 only become superconducting under sufficiently high pressure. In the rare-earth metals, the strong local magnetic moments originating from the 4f shell suppress superconductivity. For Eu, however, Johansson and Rosengren have suggested that sufficiently high pressures should promote one of its 4f electrons into the conduction band, changing Eu from a strongly magnetic (J=7/2) 4f7-state into a weak Van Vleck paramagnetic (J=0) 4f6-state, thus opening the door for superconductivity, as in Am (5f6). We report that Eu becomes superconducting above 1.8 K for pressures exceeding 80 GPa, Tc increasing linearly with pressure to 142 GPa at the rate +15 mK/GPa. Eu thus becomes the 53rd elemental superconductor in the periodic table. Synchrotron x-ray diffraction studies to 92 GPa at ambient temperature reveal four structural phase transitions.
ISSN:1742-6588
1742-6596
DOI:10.1088/1742-6596/215/1/012034