Superconductivity in Yttrium and Thorium Polyhydrides: a Route to Industrial Applications

Recent blast growth in hydride superconductivity (SC) has resulted in the achievement of near-room critical temperatures (ThH₁₀: 161 K [1], H₃S: 203 K [2], YH₆: 226 K [3a-b], LaH₁₀: 250 K [4]) in centimeter-sized mini DACs. The logical final step in this sequence is achieving the room-temperature superconductivity. This progress would not be possible without the development of modern DFT methods and algorithms for crystal structure prediction (e.g. USPEX, CALYPSO, AIRSS). Thanks to these methods, the results of numerical simulations of new superconductors in La-H, Y-H, Th-H, Ce-H systems have been experimentally confirmed in recent years. This is probably the first such great success of computational material science in the field of high-T_C SC.

Here we will present the latest results in high-pressure chemistry of Y, Ba, Sr, Eu superhydrides and measurements of their transport properties with targeted focus on ternary systems and doping of already known SC materials. Perspectives of hydride electronics in DACs, light and magnetic sensors, topology for superconducting storage rings and SQIUDs on diamonds will be discussed.

References:
[1] D. Semenok et al. Materials Today 2019 (in press)
[2] A. Drozdov et al. Nature 525, p. 73–76 (2015)
[3] (a) arXiv:1908.01534; (b) arXiv:1909.10482
[4] A. Drozdov et al. Nature 569, p. 528–531 (2019)