Single Crystal X-Ray Diffraction Investigation of High Tc Sc-H Mixtures

Recent experiments have demonstrated an astonishing close-to-room-temperature superconductivity (Tc ~ 250 K) in laser-heated Y-H and La-H mixtures between 170 GPa and 200 GPa. While this is a game-changer in our understanding of condensed matter physics, these pressures are far too high for technological applications. Scandium hydrides, which are largely unexplored experimentally at high pressures, are predicted by computational calculations to also form several high-Tc superconducting new structures, including a promising ScH12 solid with a calculated Tc of 313 K below 100 GPa. The here proposed study will investigate laser-heated Sc-H mixtures between 40 and 250 GPa, in pursuit of the theoretically predicted wealth of Sc-H stoichiometries and structures, some featuring very high Tc values. Unit cell and Sc atom’s arrangement will be extracted by single-crystal X-ray diffraction sample characterization.

近期实验研究证实，在170吉帕斯卡（GPa）至200 GPa的压强环境中，经激光加热的钇氢（Y-H）与镧氢（La-H）混合体系可实现近室温超导现象，其超导临界温度（Tc）约为250 K。尽管这一发现堪称凝聚态物理领域的颠覆性突破，但此类压强远超出技术应用的可实现范围。
氢化钪在高压下的实验研究仍较为匮乏，但计算模拟预测其可形成多种高临界温度超导新结构，其中极具应用潜力的ScH₁₂固体在低于100 GPa的压强下，计算得到的临界温度可达313 K。
本项拟开展的研究将针对40 GPa至250 GPa压强范围内的激光加热氢化钪混合体系展开实验，旨在探寻理论预测中丰富多样的氢化钪化学计量比与晶体结构，其中部分结构具备极高的超导临界温度。研究将通过单晶X射线衍射（single-crystal X-ray diffraction）对样品进行表征，以提取晶胞参数及钪原子的空间排布信息。