Synthesis of possible room temperature superconductor LK-99:Pb${}_9$Cu(PO${}_4$)${}_6$O

Abstract

The quest for room-temperature superconductors has been teasing scientists and physicists, since its inception in 1911 itself. Several assertions have already been made about room temperature superconductivity but were never verified or reproduced across the labs. The cuprates were the earliest high transition temperature superconductors, and it seems that copper has done the magic once again. Last week, a Korean group synthesized a Lead Apatite-based compound LK-99, showing a T${}_c$ of above 400${}^{\circ }$K. The signatures of superconductivity in the compound are very promising, in terms of resistivity (R = 0) and diamagnetism at T${}_c$. Although, the heat capacity (C${}_p$) did not show the obvious transition at T${}_c$. Inspired by the interesting claims of above room temperature superconductivity in LK-99, in this article, we report the synthesis of polycrystalline samples of LK-99, by following the same heat treatment as reported in [1,2] by the two-step precursor method. The phase is confirmed through X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements, performed after each heat treatment. The room temperature diamagnetism is not evidenced by the levitation of a permanent magnet over the sample or vice versa. Further measurements for the confirmation of bulk superconductivity on variously synthesized samples are underway. Our results on the present LK-99 sample, being synthesized at 925${}^{\circ }$C, as of now do not approve the appearance of bulk superconductivity at room temperature. Further studies with different heat treatments are though, yet underway.

Short Commun.: 8pages Text + Figs: Comments/suggestion Welcome

References in corpus (5)

• Towards high-throughput superconductor discovery via machine learning
• Nodeless pairing in superconducting copper-oxide monolayer films on Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ
• Nonstandard superconductivity or no superconductivity in hydrides under high pressure
• Superconductor Pb${}_{10-x}$Cu${}_x$(PO${}_4$)${}_6$O showing levitation at room temperature and atmospheric pressure and mechanism
• Hot Hydride Superconductivity above 550 K

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Single crystal synthesis, structure, and magnetism of Pb${}_{10-x}$Cu${}_x$(PO${}_4$)${}_6$O
• Ferromagnetic and insulating behavior in both half magnetic levitation and non-levitation LK-99 like samples
• On the dynamical stability of copper-doped lead apatite
• Symmetry breaking induced insulating electronic state in Pb${}_9$Cu(PO${}_4$)${}_6$O
• No superconductivity in Pb${}_9$Cu${}_1$(PO${}_4$)${}_6$O found in orbital and spin fluctuation exchange calculations
• Correlated electronic structure of Pb${}_{10-x}$Cu${}_x$(PO4)${}_6$O
• Implications of the electron-phonon coupling in CuPb${}_9$(PO${}_4$)${}_6$O for superconductivity: an \textit{ab initio} study
• One-step synthesis of Cu-doped Pb${}_{10}$(PO${}_4$)${}_6$Cl${}_2$ apatite: A wide-gap semiconductor
• Nonlinear Hall Effects induced by Berry Curvature Dipole in CuPb${}_9$(PO${}_4$)${}_6$O
• Glassy magnetic freezing of interacting clusters in LK-99-family materials