Abstract
Recently, superconductivity with onset transition temperature (Tconset) over 40 K was achieved in La3Ni2O7 and (La,Pr)3Ni2O7 thin films at ambient pressure due to in-plane compressive strain. However, the Tc in these thin films are lower than that of the bulk bilayer nickelates under pressure. Here we report the enhancement of Tconset from about 30 K to over 48 K by applying hydrostatic pressure on the compressively strained bilayer nickelate thin films. The Tconset firstly ramps up with pressure, then it slightly drops down after reaching the maximum Tconset at about 48.5 K. Our theoretical calculations yield a cooperative enhancement of magnetic fluctuations between and within the layers and increased metallicity under pressure. These findings highlight the critical role of the interplay between interlayer and intralayer electronic correlations in bilayer nickelate superconductors and point to the potential of tuning Tc through controlled manipulation of the electronic structure and interactions.
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The data presented in the main text figures have been deposited in the figshare database under accession code https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.30363781. The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the useful discussions with Daoxin Yao, Meng Wang and Matthias Hepting. We thank Wenjie Sun and Yuefeng Nie for the help in the XRD and RSM measurements. We also appreciate the kind help in the polishing of the thin films given by Zhe Liu. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 12494590 (Q.L. and B.W), No. 11927809 (H.-H.W.), No. 12025408 (J.C.), No. 12522407 (J.S.), No. 12574145 (Q.L.), No. 12174424 (J.S.), No.123B2055 (Y.-J.Z.) and No. 12204231 (Q.L.)), the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2022YFA1403201 (H.-H.W. and Q.L.) and No. 2023YFA1406100 (J.C.)), the CAS Project for Young Scientists in Basic Research (2022YSBR-048) (J.S.), the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of CAS (2023007) (J.S.).
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The nickelate thin films were grown by M.O., Y.W., Q.L., and H.-H.W. The high-pressure electrical transport measurements in PCC were performed by Q.L., Z.-N.X. and Y.-J.Z. with assistance from H.-H.W. High-pressure resistivity measurements in CAC were done by J.S., B.W., and J.C. Theoretical calculations and their analysis were carried out by S.B., F.L., and I.M.E. Q.L., J.C., I.M.E., and H.-H.W. analyzed the experimental data and wrote the manuscript with the inputs from all co-authors.
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Li, Q., Sun, J., Bötzel, S. et al. Enhanced superconductivity in the compressively strained bilayer nickelate thin films by pressure. Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-69660-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-69660-1
