High Superconducting Superhydrides under Pressure by Professor Liu Hanyu

Many zero resistance materials have been demonstrated in the laboratory since superconductivity was discovered in 1911. Unfortunately, these superconductors require low temperatures. Progress toward superconductors that operate at or near ambient temperatures is a dream of physics, chemistry and materials science. In this work, we have explored some candidate structures for hydrides [1-3] under pressure using CALYPSO code [4,5]. Electron-phonon coupling calculations predict the existence of new superconducting phases, some exhibiting superconductivity in the range of room temperature. Further analysis shows that the hydrogen-hydrogen bonding in superhydrides played an important role in determining electron-phonon coupling parameters. Moreover, the calculated stabilities indicate the materials could be synthesized at pressures that are currently accessible in the laboratory. The results open the prospect for the design, synthesis, and recovery of new high-temperature or even room-temperature superconductors. 

References

[1] Hanyu Liu, Ivan I. Naumov, Roald Hoffmann, N. W. Ashcroft, Russell J. Hemley, Potential high-Tc superconducting lanthanum and yttrium hydrides at high pressures, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 114, 6990-6995 (2017)

[2] Xin Zhong, Ying Sun, Toshiaki Iitaka, Meiling Xu, Hanyu Liu, Russell Hemley, Changfeng Chen, Yanming Ma, Prediction of above-room-temperature superconductivity in lanthanide/actinide extreme superhydrides, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 144, 13394-13400(2022)

[3] Jingkai Bi, Yuki Nakamoto, Peiyu Zhang, Katsuya Shimizu, Bo Zou, Hanyu Liu, Mi Zhou, Guangtao Liu, Hongbo Wang, Yanming Ma, Giant enhancement of superconducting critical temperature in substitutional alloy (La,Ce)H, Nat. Commun. 13, 5952 (2022)

[4] Y. Wang, Lv, L. Zhu, and Y. Ma, Crystal Structure Prediction via Particle Swarm Optimization, Phys. Rev. B  82, 094116 (2010)

[5] Y. Wang, Lv, L. Zhu, and Y. Ma, CALYPSO: A method for crystal structure prediction, Comput. Phys. Commun. 183, 2063-2070 (2012)

Hanyu LIU received his Ph.D. degree in Jilin University under the supervision (2008-2013) of Prof. Yanming Ma, he joined the University of Saskatchewan working with Prof. John Tse as a postdoctoral fellow (2013-2015) and Carnegie Institution of Washington working with Prof. Russell Hemley as a postdoctoral associate (2015-2018). Since 2018, he has been a professor in College of Physics, Jilin University. His research focuses on crystal structures and physical properties of materials at high pressure, e.g., prediction of some compressed hydrides with superconducting temperature exceeding 200 K, encouragingly, some of which were confirmed by later experiments. Total citation is over 16,000 (Google Scholar). Dr Liu was a recipient of “Young Researcher Award” (2021, one of two recipients) in the 10th Asian Conference on High-Pressure Research, as well as one of 2025 Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers.