Record high Tc element superconductivity achieved in titanium

Changling Zhang; Xin He; Chang Liu; Zhiwen Li; Ke Lu; Sijia Zhang; Shaomin Feng; Xiancheng Wang; Yi Peng; Youwen Long; Richeng Yu; Luhong Wang; Vitali Prakapenka; Stella Chariton; Quan Li; Haozhe Liu; Changfeng Chen; Changqing Jin

doi:10.1038/s41467-022-33077-3

Record high T_c element superconductivity achieved in titanium

Nat Commun. 2022 Sep 15;13(1):5411. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-33077-3.

Authors

Changling Zhang^#^{1

2}, Xin He^#^{1

2

3}, Chang Liu^#⁴, Zhiwen Li^{1

2}, Ke Lu^{1

2}, Sijia Zhang¹, Shaomin Feng¹, Xiancheng Wang^{5

6}, Yi Peng^{1

2}, Youwen Long^{1

2

3}, Richeng Yu^{1

2}, Luhong Wang⁷, Vitali Prakapenka⁸, Stella Chariton⁸, Quan Li⁴, Haozhe Liu⁹, Changfeng Chen¹⁰, Changqing Jin^{11

12

13}

Affiliations

¹ Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100190, Beijing, China.
² School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100190, Beijing, China.
³ Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, 523808, Dongguan, China.
⁴ International Center for Computational Method and Software, College of Physics, Jilin University, 130012, Changchun, China.
⁵ Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100190, Beijing, China. wangxiancheng@iphy.ac.cn.
⁶ School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100190, Beijing, China. wangxiancheng@iphy.ac.cn.
⁷ Shanghai Advanced Research in Physical Sciences, 201203, Shanghai, China.
⁸ Center for Advanced Radiations Sources, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA.
⁹ Center for High Pressure Science & Technology Advanced Research, 100094, Beijing, China.
¹⁰ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV, 89154, USA. changfeng.chen@unlv.edu.
¹¹ Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100190, Beijing, China. jin@iphy.ac.cn.
¹² School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100190, Beijing, China. jin@iphy.ac.cn.
¹³ Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, 523808, Dongguan, China. jin@iphy.ac.cn.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

It is challenging to search for high T_c superconductivity (SC) in transition metal elements wherein d electrons are usually not favored by conventional BCS theory. Here we report experimental discovery of surprising SC up to 310 GPa with T_c above 20 K in wide pressure range from 108 GPa to 240 GPa in titanium. The maximum T_c^onset above 26.2 K and zero resistance T_c^zero of 21 K are record high values hitherto achieved among element superconductors. The H_c2(0) is estimated to be ∼32 Tesla with coherence length 32 Å. The results show strong s-d transfer and d band dominance, indicating correlation driven contributions to high T_c SC in dense titanium. This finding is in sharp contrast to the theoretical predications based on pristine electron-phonon coupling scenario. The study opens a fresh promising avenue for rational design and discovery of high T_c superconductors among simple materials via pressure tuned unconventional mechanism.