Superconductivity of thulium substituted clathrate hexahydrides at moderate pressure

Hongyu Huang; Chao Deng; Hao Song; Mingyang Du; Defang Duan; Yanhui Liu; Tian Cui

doi:10.1038/s41598-024-61400-z

Superconductivity of thulium substituted clathrate hexahydrides at moderate pressure

Sci Rep. 2024 May 10;14(1):10729. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-61400-z.

Authors

Hongyu Huang¹, Chao Deng¹, Hao Song¹, Mingyang Du², Defang Duan³, Yanhui Liu¹, Tian Cui^{4

5}

Affiliations

¹ School of Physical Science and Technology, Institute of High Pressure Physics, Ningbo University, Ningbo, 315211, People's Republic of China.
² School of Physical Science and Technology, Institute of High Pressure Physics, Ningbo University, Ningbo, 315211, People's Republic of China. dumingyang@nbu.edu.cn.
³ College of Physics, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, People's Republic of China.
⁴ School of Physical Science and Technology, Institute of High Pressure Physics, Ningbo University, Ningbo, 315211, People's Republic of China. cuitian@nbu.edu.cn.
⁵ College of Physics, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, People's Republic of China. cuitian@nbu.edu.cn.

Abstract

Due to the BCS theory, hydrogen, the lightest element, would be the prospect of room-temperature superconductor after metallization, but because of the difficulty of the hydrogen metallization, the theory about hydrogen pre-compression was proposed that the hydrogen-rich compounds could be a great option for the high T_c superconductors. The superior properties of TmH₆, YbH₆ and LuH₆ indicated the magnificent potential of heavy rare earth elements for low-pressure stability. Here, we designed XTmH₁₂ (X = Y, Yb, Lu, and La) to obtain higher T_c while maintaining low pressure stability. Most prominently, YbTmH₁₂ can stabilize at a pressure of 60 GPa. Compared with binary TmH₆ hydride, its T_c was increased to 48 K. The results provide an effective method for the rational design of moderate pressure stabilized hydride superconductors.

Keywords: First principles calculation; High pressure; Hydrides; Superconductivity.

Abstract

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