High-temperature Superconducting Oxide without Copper at Ambient Pressure

• Main Authors: Chow, S. Lin Er, Luo, Zhaoyang, Ariando, A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 30.09.2024
• Subjects: Physics - Materials Science; Physics - Strongly Correlated Electrons; Physics - Superconductivity
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2410.00144

The discovery of superconductivity in the Ba-La-Cu-O system (the cuprate) at the 30 K range in 1986 marked a significant breakthrough, as it far exceeded the highest known critical temperature ($T_c$) at the time and surpassed the predicted 30 K limit, which was thought to be the maximum before phonon-mediated electron pairing would break down due to thermal excitation. Despite recent successful observations of superconductivity in nickel-oxide-based compounds (the nickelate), superconductivity above 30 K at ambient pressure in a system that is isostructural and isoelectronic to the cuprate but without copper has remained elusive. Here, we report a superconducting $T_c$ above 35 K under ambient pressure in hole-doped, late rare-earth infinite-layer nickel oxide (Sm-Eu-Ca-Sr)NiO$_2$ thin films. Electron microscopy reveals a small thickness of ~2 nm of infinite-layer phase stabilised at present, which indicates a higher temperature superconductivity should be observable in clean bulk crystals.