Original Title：Chinese scientists achieve a major breakthrough in high-temperature superconductivity
On February 18th, a joint research team led by academician Xue Qikun, a recipient of State Preeminent Science and Technology Award, and consisting of members from the Southern University of Science and Technology, the Quantum Science Center of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and Tsinghua University, published a groundbreaking study online in "Nature". The team reported the first observation of high-temperature superconductivity in nickel oxides under ambient pressure.
This discovery establishes nickel-based materials as the third class of high-temperature superconducting system, following copper-based and iron-based materials, to surpass the 40K "McMillan limit", providing a new breakthrough to unravel the mechanisms of superconductivity.
In recent years, nickel-based superconducting materials have emerged as a promising frontier. In 2019, US researchers first observed superconductivity in nickel-based thin films. In 2023, Chinese scientists achieved superconductivity in the liquid nitrogen temperature range under extremely high pressure. However, achieving high-temperature superconductivity at ambient pressure has remained a global challenge.
To address this, Xue Qikun and 35-year-old associate professor Chen Zhuoyu led a team of young scientists, predominantly in their 30s, in a three-year effort. They independently developed a "gigantic-oxidative atomic-layer-by-layer epitaxy" technique. This method, conducted in an environment with far greater oxidizing power than traditional approaches, employs "atomic riveting" to construct high-quality oxide films just a few nanometers thick on atomically smooth substrates. After thousands of experiments, the team successfully achieved superconductivity at ambient pressure. Xue stated that this breakthrough fully demonstrates China's original competitive capabilities in the frontier field of high-temperature superconductivity, highlights the innovative technical approaches of the young scientist team, and underscores the critical role of domestically developed, controllable research equipment, particularly in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, in supporting cutting-edge scientific innovation.
Notably, a research team from Stanford University in the US almost simultaneously reported similar ambient-pressure superconducting phenomena. The independent experiments from both China and the US serve as mutual validation, providing crucial insights into further analysis of the electron-pairing mechanisms of high-temperature superconductivity and laying a solid foundation for the independent development of superconducting and quantum materials in China.
Source: Lingnan on the Cloud
Original article link:
https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1824495266523893869&wfr=spider&for=pc
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