Superconductivity in $p$-Terphenyl

Abstract

Motivated by the exploration of bipolaronic superconductivity in conducting polymers, we examine such a possibility in the starting member of $p$-oligophenyls $-$ $p$-terphenyl with three phenyl rings, belonging to the family of conducting polymer polyparaphenylene. The formation of bipolarons is identified from Raman scattering measurements. Both the dc and ac magnetic susceptibility measurements reveal that $p$-terphenyl is a type-II superconductor with a critical temperature of 7.2 K upon doping potassium. The electron-lattice interaction, manifested by pronounced bipolaronic bands, is suggested to account for the observed superconductivity. Conducting polymers are thus demonstrated to have the potential for the development of new superconducting technologies and devices.

5 pages, 5 figures

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Structural and bonding character of potassium-doped p-terphenyl superconductors
• Superconductivity above 120 kelvin in a chain link molecule
• Spectroscopic Evidence of Low Energy Gaps Persisting Towards 120 Kelvin in Surface-Doped p-Terphenyl Crystals
• Facile synthesis of potassium intercalated p-terphenyl and signatures of a possible high Tc phase
• Observation of novel gapped phases in potassium doped single layer p-terphenyl on Au (111)
• Order-disorder transition in $p$-oligophenyls
• Superconductivity from Meissner Effect and Zero Resistivity in a Phenyl Molecule