Pressure-induced superconductivity in elemental ytterbium metal

Abstract

Ytterbium (Yb) metal is divalent and nonmagnetic but would be expected under sufficient pressure to become trivalent and magnetic. We have carried out electrical resistivity and ac magnetic susceptibility measurements on Yb to pressures as high as 179 GPa over the temperature range 1.4 - 295 K. No evidence for magnetic order is observed. However, above 86 GPa Yb is found to become superconducting near 1.4 K with a transition temperature that increases monotonically with pressure to approximately 4.6 K at 179 GPa. Yb thus becomes the 54th known elemental superconductor.

3 figures

References in corpus (11)

• Quantum Criticality in Heavy Fermion Metals
• Heavy fermion superconductivity and magnetic order in non-centrosymmetric $CeP{t}_{3}Si$
• Superconducting phases of f-electron compounds
• Heavy Fermions and Quantum Phase Transitions
• Comparison of the pressure dependences of Tc in the trivalent d-electron superconductors
• Multiple quantum phase transitions and superconductivity in Ce-based heavy fermions
• Charge Fluctuations and the Valence Transition in Yb under Pressure
• Ferromagnetism in YbCu2Si2 at high pressure
• On the Origin of the Double Superconducting Transition in Overdoped YBa2Cu3Ox
• Magnetic Ordering at Anomalously High Temperatures in Dy at Extreme Pressures: a New Kondo-Lattice State?
• Anomalous Pressure Dependence of magnetic Ordering Temperature in Tb to 141 GPa: Comparison with Gd and Dy

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Nonstandard superconductivity or no superconductivity in hydrides under high pressure
• High Tc superconductivity in heavy Rare Earth Hydrides: correlation between the presence of the f states on the Fermi surface, nesting and the value of Tc
• Absence of high temperature superconductivity in hydrides under pressure
• Absence of magnetic evidence for superconductivity in hydrides under high pressure
• Faulty evidence for superconductivity in ac magnetic susceptibility of sulfur hydride under pressure
• On the ac magnetic susceptibility of a room temperature superconductor: anatomy of a probable scientific fraud
• Novel Valence Transition in Elemental Metal Europium around 80 GPa
• Pressure-induced Frustration of Magnetic Coupling in Elemental Europium