Giant enhancement of superconducting critical temperature in substitutional alloy (La,Ce)H9

• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-33743-6
• Publication Date: 2022-10-10T11:52:31Z
• Authors: Jingkai Bi; Yuki Nakamoto; Peiyu Zhang; Katsuya Shimizu; Bo Zou; Hanyu Liu; Mi Zhou; Guangtao Liu; Hongbo Wang; Yanming Ma
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; 0303 health sciences; 03 medical and health sciences; Science; Q; Article

A sharp focus of current research on superconducting superhydrides is to raise their critical temperature Tc at moderate pressures. Here, we report a discovery giant enhancement in CeH9 obtained via random substitution half Ce by La, leading equal-atomic (La,Ce)H9 alloy stabilized maximum configurational entropy, containing the LaH9 unit that unstable pure compound form. The synthesized exhibits 148-178 K pressure range 97-172 GPa, representing up 80% compared and showcasing highest sub-megabar among known superhydrides. This work demonstrates substitutional alloying as highly effective enabling tool for substantially enhancing atypical compositional modulation inside suitably selected host crystal. optimal approach opens promising avenue synthesis high-entropy multinary may exhibit further increased even lower