Recently, near-ambient superconductivity has been experimentally evidenced in a nitrogen-doped lutetium hydride by Dasenbrock-Gammon \emph{et al.} [Nature 615, 244 (2023)], which yields a remarkable maximum $T_c$ of 294 K at just 10 kbar. However, due to the difficulty of x-ray diffraction (XRD) in identifying light elements such as hydrogen and nitrogen, the crystal structure of the superconductor remains elusive, in particular for the actual stoichiometry of hydrogen and nitrogen and their atomistic positions. This holds even for its parent structure. Here, we set out to address this issue by performing a thorough density functional theory study on the structural, electronic, dynamical, and optical properties of lutetium hydrides. Through thermal and lattice dynamic analysis as well as XRD and superconductor color comparisons, we unambiguously clarified that the parent structures are a mixture of dominant LuH$_2$ phase of the CaF$_2$-type (instead of originally proposed LuH$_3$ structure of $Fm\bar{3}m$ space group) and minor LuH phase of the NaCl-type.
Origin of Flat Bands and Role of Electron Correlation in Lutetium Hydrides
University of Illinois Chicago（伊利诺伊大学芝加哥分校）；The University of Texas at Austin（德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校）；Argonne National Laboratory（阿贡国家实验室）；Oak Ridge National Laboratory（橡树岭国家实验室）
The lutetium dihydride LuH2 is stable at ambient conditions. Here we show that its color undergoes sequential changes from dark blue at ambient pressure to pink at ~2.2 GPa and then to bright red at ~4 GPa upon compression in a diamond anvil cell. Such a pressure-induced color change in LuH2 is reversible and it is very similar to that recently reported in the N-doped lutetium hydride. However, our preliminary resistance measurements on LuH2 under pressures up to 7.7 GPa evidenced no superconductivity down to 1.5 K.
Niobium provides the basis for all superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities in use, however, hydrogen is readily absorbed by niobium during cavity fabrication and subsequent niobium hydride precipitation when cooled to cryogenic temperatures degrades its superconducting properties. In the last few years the addition of dopant elements such as nitrogen has been experimentally shown to significantly improve the quality factor of niobium SRF cavities. One of the contributors to Q degradation can be presence of hydrides, however, the underlying mechanisms associated with the kinetics of hydr…
Generally hydrogen will adopt the +1, 0 or -1 oxidation state in solids depending upon the chemical environment it occupy. Typically, there are some exceptional cases in which hydrogen exhibits both anionic and cationic behavior in the same structural frame works. In this study we briefly explore an amphoteric behavior of hydrogen present in ammine bimetallic borohydrides with the chemical formula M1M2 (BH4)3 (NH3)2 (M1= Na; M2 = Zn, Mg) using the state-of-the-art density functional calculations. In order to establish the amphoteric behavior of hydrogen in M1M2 (BH4)3 (NH3)2, we have made deta…
First-principles study on the high-$T_\text{c}$ superconductivity of Mg-Ti-H ternary hydrides up to the liquid-nitrogen temperature range under high pressures
Usually the ions of a particular element in solids are in positive or negative oxidation states, depending upon the chemical environment. It is highly unusual for an atom having both positive as well as negative oxidation states simultaneously within the same structural framework in a particular compound. Our structural and chemical bonding analyses show that the hydrogen ions in the transition metal ammine borohydrides (TMABHs) with the chemical formula M(BH4)2(NH3)2 (M = Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu and Zn) have both positive and negative oxidation states. Our detailed analyses confirm …
