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Title: Pressure-Induced Superconductivity in Elemental Ytterbium Metal

Abstract

Ytterbium (Yb) metal is divalent and nonmagnetic (4f14 configuration). Under pressure its valence increases significantly leading to the expectation that magnetic instabilities and other highly correlated electron effects may appear before a stable trivalent state is reached (4f13 configuration). We carried out electrical resistivity and ac magnetic susceptibility measurements to 179 GPa over the temperature range 1.4 - 295 K. No evidence for magnetic order is observed. However, Yb becomes a superconductor at 86 GPa with Tc≃1.4 K, increasing to 4.6 K at 179 GPa. X-ray absorption spectroscopy shows that Yb remains mixed-valent to at least 125 GPa, pointing to an active role of $$f$$ electrons in the emergence of superconductivity in this simple, elemental solid.

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [2];  [1]
  1. Washington Univ., St. Louis, MO (United States). Dept. of Physics
  2. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source (APS)
  3. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source (APS); Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States). Dept. of Geology
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Office of Science (SC)
OSTI Identifier:
1493699
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1461027
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-06CH11357; DMR-1104742; FC52-08NA28554; AC-02-06CH11357
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Physical Review Letters
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 121; Journal Issue: 3; Journal ID: ISSN 0031-9007
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY

Citation Formats

Song, J., Fabbris, G., Bi, W., Haskel, D., and Schilling, J. S. Pressure-Induced Superconductivity in Elemental Ytterbium Metal. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.037004.
Song, J., Fabbris, G., Bi, W., Haskel, D., & Schilling, J. S. Pressure-Induced Superconductivity in Elemental Ytterbium Metal. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.037004
Song, J., Fabbris, G., Bi, W., Haskel, D., and Schilling, J. S. Fri . "Pressure-Induced Superconductivity in Elemental Ytterbium Metal". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.037004. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1493699.
@article{osti_1493699,
title = {Pressure-Induced Superconductivity in Elemental Ytterbium Metal},
author = {Song, J. and Fabbris, G. and Bi, W. and Haskel, D. and Schilling, J. S.},
abstractNote = {Ytterbium (Yb) metal is divalent and nonmagnetic (4f14 configuration). Under pressure its valence increases significantly leading to the expectation that magnetic instabilities and other highly correlated electron effects may appear before a stable trivalent state is reached (4f13 configuration). We carried out electrical resistivity and ac magnetic susceptibility measurements to 179 GPa over the temperature range 1.4 - 295 K. No evidence for magnetic order is observed. However, Yb becomes a superconductor at 86 GPa with Tc≃1.4 K, increasing to 4.6 K at 179 GPa. X-ray absorption spectroscopy shows that Yb remains mixed-valent to at least 125 GPa, pointing to an active role of $f$ electrons in the emergence of superconductivity in this simple, elemental solid.},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.037004},
journal = {Physical Review Letters},
number = 3,
volume = 121,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Jul 20 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Fri Jul 20 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}

Journal Article:

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 18 works
Citation information provided by
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Figures / Tables:

FIG. 1 FIG. 1: (a) Resistance of Yb in run R1 versus temperature from 1.4 K to 295 K for pressures to 179 GPa at low temperature. The maximum value of the residual resistance 430 mΩ corresponds to a resistivity of approximately 10 μΩcm. Inset shows smooth R(T) dependence below 25 K;more » note that residual resistance at 4 K has been subtracted o . Inset inside inset shows sharp break in slope of R(T) for Nd signaling magnetic ordering at To ≃ 44 K. (b) Resistance data from (a) for temperatures 1.4 K to 7 K showing superconducting transitions for pressures 86 GPa and above. Data at 86 GPa are from run R2. Here Tc is de ned (see, for example, data at 150 GPa) as temperature where straight red line through data hits temperature axis; vertical tick marks temperature where R(T) vanishes.« less

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Figures/Tables have been extracted from DOE-funded journal article accepted manuscripts.