High Magnetic Field Probe of Hydride Superconductors

High magnetic fields have proven to be an invaluable tool for exploring properties of novel superconductors. A combination of miniature diamond anvil cells and pulse magnets allows us to controllably tune and probe the superconducting order and the vortex matter in several recently discovered hydride superconductors at the extremes of pressure-field parameter envelope. Because of the larger superconducting energy scale, magnetic fields of the order of 100 T are required to establish key superconducting properties, including Cooper pair coherence length, the strength of the electron-phonon coupling, the role of the spin-orbit coupling, and the dominant mechanism breaking the Copper pairs. We find that the orbital effect suppresses superconductivity over the entire temperature range, while pronounced deviations from the Werthamer, Helfand, and Hohenberg theory predictions are observed at lower temperatures.