Electronic and Magnetic Properties of Condensed Matter; Superconductivity
Summary
Condensed‐matter systems display a rich tapestry of electronic and magnetic behaviour that hinges on the quantum states available to their electrons. In metals, overlapping valence and conduction bands furnish a sea of delocalised carriers, whereas in semiconductors and insulators a finite bandgap governs the temperature and doping dependence of conductivity. Magnetism may arise from localised spin moments or from band electrons, yielding classes of diamagnets, paramagnets and collective orders such as ferromagnetism. Superconductivity emerges when electrons form bound pairs below a characteristic transition temperature, thereby expelling magnetic flux (Meissner effect) and carrying current with zero resistance. The microscopic framework for conventional superconductors is provided by the Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer theory, in which phonon‐mediated attractions bind electrons into a coherent condensate. Type-I materials exhibit full flux expulsion up to a single critical field, while Type-II superconductors admit a mixed state of quantised vortices between lower and upper critical fields. Recent advances have extended superconductivity to hydrogen‐rich compounds under megabar pressures, and the ongoing quest for ambient‐pressure, high‐temperature superconductors continues to drive both theory and high‐pressure synthesis techniques.
Research from Nature Portfolio
Alloying rare‐earth elements in ternary hydrides has been shown to stabilise superconductivity at elevated temperatures and moderate pressures. In a hexagonal close‐packed lanthanum–cerium superhydride, a solid‐solution sublattice was synthesised at around 113 GPa, yielding a transition temperature near 176 K and very high upper critical fields. The mixed metal site reduces lattice instabilities and enhances electron–phonon coupling, offering a route to optimise critical parameters in hydride phases. In parallel, experiments on calcium superhydrides at pressures of 160–190 GPa have uncovered a phase with approximate composition CaH₆ that becomes superconducting above 210 K. In‐situ synchrotron diffraction reveals a sodalite‐like hydrogen cage around calcium, and magnetotransport measurements establish coherence lengths on the order of 11 Å and extraordinarily high critical fields, confirming the central role of three‐dimensional hydrogen frameworks in high‐temperature superconductivity.
Electronic and Magnetic Properties of Condensed Matter; Superconductivity publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in electronic and magnetic properties of condensed matter; superconductivity across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Bandgap: Energy difference between the top of the valence band and the bottom of the conduction band in a solid.
Meissner effect: Complete expulsion of magnetic flux from a superconductor below its critical temperature.
Type-II superconductor: A superconductor that admits partial magnetic flux penetration as vortices between lower (Bc1) and upper (Bc2) critical fields.
Electron–phonon coupling: Interaction through which lattice vibrations mediate an attractive force between electrons, foundational to conventional superconductivity.
Coherence length: Characteristic size over which the superconducting order parameter varies, setting the vortex core diameter.
Critical temperature (Tc): Temperature below which a material enters the superconducting state with zero electrical resistance.
References
- The Phenomenon of Superconductivity and Type II Superconductors.
- Enhancement of superconducting properties in the La–Ce–H system at moderate pressures. Nature Communications (2023).
- Superconductivity above 200 K discovered in superhydrides of calcium. Nature Communications (2022).
- Pressure-induced metallization of dense (H2S)2H2 with high-Tc superconductivity. Scientific Reports (2014).
- Structure and superconductivity of hydrides at high pressures. National Science Review (2016).
- Models of Oxygen Occupancy in Lead Phosphate Apatite Pb10(PO4)6O. ACS Energy Letters (2023).
- The 2021 room-temperature superconductivity roadmap. Journal of Physics Condensed Matter (2022).
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