A breakthrough discovery of a new superconducting material sets a new record for transition metal sulfide superconductors with a transition temperature of 11.6 K and a high critical current density, marking a significant advancement in superconductor development.
With the support of electrical transport and magnetic measurement systems of Steady High Magnetic Field Facility (SHMFF), a research team from Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), discovered a new superconducting material called (InSe2)xNbSe2, which possesses a unique lattice structure. The superconducting transition temperature of this material reaches 11.6 K, making it the transition metal sulfide superconductor with the highest transition temperature under ambient pressure.
The results were published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Advancing Superconductor Research
TMD materials have received lots of attention due to the numerous applications in the fields of catalysis, energy storage, and integrated circuits. However, the relatively low superconducting transition temperatures of TMD superconductors have limited their potential use.
In this study, scientists successfully fabricated a new superconducting material with the chemical formula (InSe2)xNbSe2. Unlike the conventional conditions where isolated atoms are inserted into the van de Waals gaps of low dimensional materials, in (InSe2)xNbSe2 the intercalated indium atoms were found to form InSe2-bonded chains.
Record-Breaking Superconducting Properties
“This material has very high transition temperature among all transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) superconductors,” said Prof. Changjin Zhang, who led the team, “and it exhibits an impressive critical current density.”
The superconducting transition temperature of the (InSe2)0.12NbSe2 sample could be as high as 11.6 K at ambient pressure, which is 60% higher than that of pristine NbSe2.
Furthermore, the (InSe2)xNbSe2 superconductor exhibits large critical current density of 8×105 A/cm2, which is also the highest among all TMD superconductors. The critical current density is comparable with high temperature superconductors such as cuprate and iron-based compounds, demonstrating its good application prospects.
This discovery opens up new possibilities for advancing superconductivity research and developing high-temperature superconductors with improved performance, according to the team.
Reference: “Enhanced Superconductivity and Critical Current Density Due to the Interaction of InSe2 Bonded Layer in (InSe2)0.12NbSe2” by Rui Niu, Jiayang Li, Weili Zhen, Feng Xu, Shirui Weng, Zhilai Yue, Xiangmin Meng, Jing Xia, Ning Hao and Changjin Zhang, 5 January 2024, Journal of the American Chemical Society.
DOI: 10.1021/jacs.3c09756
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4 Comments
Good breakthrough in conducting materials.
I’ll wait for another nation to independently verify before saying wow
TJ is absolutely right, it’s only scientifically and statistically prudent to await international verification, based on many previous announcements, shall we say….
Absolutely fantastic
This pushing ahead with technology
Deserves a WOW it doesn’t matter where it comes from or who lets forget the Politics and push ahead .
I’m coming up 90 id like to be still around when we get to MARS