ABSTRACT
Polyhydrides are a novel class of superconducting materials with extremely high critical parameters, which is very promising for sensor applications. On the other hand, a complete experimental study of the best so far known superconductor, lanthanum superhydride LaH10 , encounters a serious complication because of the large upper critical magnetic field HC2 (0), exceeding 120-160 T. It is found that partial replacement of La atoms by magnetic Nd atoms results in significant suppression of superconductivity in LaH10 : each at% of Nd causes a decrease in TC by 10-11 K, helping to control the critical parameters of this compound. Strong pulsed magnetic fields up to 68 T are used to study the Hall effect, magnetoresistance, and the magnetic phase diagram of ternary metal polyhydrides for the first time. Surprisingly, (La,Nd)H10 demonstrates completely linear HC2 (T) â |T - TC |, which calls into question the applicability of the Werthamer-Helfand-Hohenberg model for polyhydrides. The suppression of superconductivity in LaH10 by magnetic Nd atoms and the robustness of TC with respect to nonmagnetic impurities (e.g., Y, Al, C) under Anderson's theorem gives new experimental evidence of the isotropic (s-wave) character of conventional electron-phonon pairing in lanthanum decahydride.
ABSTRACT
The asymmetric unit of the title compound, ß-SrB(4)O(7), contains five Sr atoms (three located on a threefold rotation axis), twelve B and 21 O atoms. The structure is made up from BO(3) triangles and BO(4) tetra-hedra in a 1:1 ratio. Pairs of BO(3) triangles are linked to BO(4) tetra-hedra via common corners, forming chains. These chains are further linked to adjacent chains through corner-sharing, leading to a three-dimensional framework with channels running parallel to [001]. The Sr(2+) ions reside in the channels and exhibit strongly distorted polyhedra The density of the ß-polymorph is considerably lower than that of α-SrB(4)O(7), which is constructed solely from BO(4) tetra-hedra.
