• Grockowiak, Audrey

Abstract

<jats:p>The search for room temperature superconductivity has accelerated in the last few years driven by experimentally accessible theoretical predictions that indicated alloying dense hydrogen with other elements could produce conventional superconductivity at high temperatures and pressures. These predictions helped inform the synthesis of simple binary hydrides that culminated in the discovery of the superhydride LaH<jats:sub>10</jats:sub> with a superconducting transition temperature <jats:italic>T</jats:italic><jats:sub><jats:italic>c</jats:italic></jats:sub> of 260 K at 180 GPa. We have now successfully synthesized a metallic La-based superhydride with an initial <jats:italic>T</jats:italic><jats:sub><jats:italic>c</jats:italic></jats:sub> of 294 K. When subjected to subsequent thermal excursions that promoted a chemical reaction to a higher order system, the <jats:italic>T</jats:italic><jats:sub><jats:italic>c</jats:italic></jats:sub> onset was driven irreversibly to 556 K. X-ray characterization confirmed the formation of a distorted LaH<jats:sub>10</jats:sub> based backbone that suggests the formation of ternary or quaternary compounds with substitution at the La and/or H sites. The results provide evidence for hot superconductivity, aligning with recent predictions for higher order hydrides under pressure.</jats:p>

Topics

• compound
• Hydrogen
• superconductivity
• superconductivity