Synthesis and physical properties of LiBC intermetallics

Abstract

Polycrystalline samples of LiBC compounds, which were predicted as possible candidate for high-Tc superconductivity, have been synthesised by a flux method and investigated by means of electrical resistivity and magnetic susceptibility. Scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction patterns showed a plate-like morphology and a single-phase nature of LiBC samples for starting composition of Li1.25BC (flux composition). The lattice constants a, c display a systematic variation with x and has maximum volume of the hexagonal unit cell at x = 1.25. Electrical resistivity measurements revealed an extrinsic semi-conducting behaviour of the single-phase LiBC with an activation energy of 18 meV and a maximum specific resistivity of 2.5 Wcm at 300 K. In contrast to the theoretical prediction of high Tc, no superconducting features were detected down to 2 K both, by measurements of electrical resistivity and magnetic susceptibility.

17 pages, 6 figures

References in corpus (3)

• Prediction of High Tc Superconductivity in Hole-doped LiBC
• Detailed electronic structure studies on superconducting MgB${}_2$ and related compounds
• Nature of bonding and electronic structure in MgB2, a boron intercalation superconductor

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Prediction of phonon-mediated high temperature superconductivity in stoichiometric Li${}_2$B${}_3$C
• Strong coupling superconductivity in trilayer film LiB${}_2$C${}_2$
• Born Effective Charges and Infrared Response of LiBC
• First-principles prediction of phonon-mediated superconductivity in XBC (X= Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba)
• Machine learning guided discovery of superconducting calcium borocarbides
• Vibrational properties of hexagonal LiBC: Infrared and Raman spectroscopy
• Thermodynamic stability of Li-B-C compounds from first principles
• Electron-phonon coupling and superconductivity in LiB${}_{1+x}$C${}_{1-x}$