Pressure-induced monotonic enhancement of Tc to over 30 K in superconducting Pr0.82Sr0.18NiO2 thin films
Ningning Wang, Ming‐Wei Yang, Zhaorong Yang, Keyu Chen, Hongrui Zhang, Qinghai Zhang, Zhihai Zhu, Yoshiya Uwatoko, Lin Gu, Xiaoli Dong, Jianping Sun, Kuijuan Jin, Jinguang Cheng
Abstract
Abstract The successful synthesis of superconducting infinite-layer nickelate thin films with the highest T c ≈ 15 K has ignited great enthusiasm for this material class as potential analogs of the high- T c cuprates. Pursuing a higher T c is always an imperative task in studying a new superconducting material system. Here we report high-quality Pr 0.82 Sr 0.18 NiO 2 thin films with T c onset ≈ 17 K synthesized by carefully tuning the amount of CaH 2 in the topotactic chemical reduction and the effect of pressure on its superconducting properties by measuring electrical resistivity under various pressures in a cubic anvil cell apparatus. We find that the onset temperature of the superconductivity, T c onset , can be enhanced monotonically from ~17 K at ambient pressure to ~31 K at 12.1 GPa without showing signatures of saturation upon increasing pressure. This encouraging result indicates that the T c of infinite-layer nickelates superconductors still has room to go higher and it can be further boosted by applying higher pressures or strain engineering in the heterostructure films.