Hopes raised for room-temperature superconductivity, but doubts remain

Jin, ChangQing; Ceperley, David

doi:10.1038/d41586-023-00599-9

NEWS AND VIEWS
08 March 2023
Update 15 November 2023

Hopes raised for room-temperature superconductivity, but doubts remain

A hydrogen-rich compound has taken the lead in the race for a material that can conduct electricity with zero resistance at room temperature and ambient pressure — the conditions required for many technological applications.

ChangQing Jin
1. ChangQing Jin is at the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
View author publications

You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
David Ceperley
1. David Ceperley is in the Department of Physics, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
View author publications

You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Access through your institution

Buy or subscribe

A superconductor is a metal that conducts electricity without resistance. In our increasingly electrified world, the implications of such a material are astounding — just imagine transmitting electrical power over thousands of kilometres with essentially no losses. But as promising as superconductivity might sound, this state has been achieved only at low temperatures¹ or very high pressures², both of which are unsuitable for many applications. For this reason, finding a material that can superconduct under ambient conditions has long been a focus of materials research. Writing in Nature, Dasenbrock-Gammon et al.³ report possible evidence for remarkable progress in this search.

Access options

Access through your institution

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 615, 221-222 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00599-9

Updates & Corrections

Update 15 November 2023: The authors wish to alert readers that the report on which this News & Views was based, ‘Evidence of near-ambient superconductivity in a N-doped lutetium hydride’, has been retracted. Some of the comments in this News & Views that rely on the accuracy and reproducibility of these data should therefore be reconsidered.

References

Chu, C. W. Physica C 482, 33–44 (2012).
Article Google Scholar
Drozdov, A. P., Eremets, M. I., Troyan, I. A., Ksenofontov, V. & Shylin, S. I. Nature 525, 73–76 (2015).
Article PubMed Google Scholar
Dasenbrock-Gammon, N. et al. Nature 615, 244–250 (2023).
Article Google Scholar
Bardeen, J., Cooper, L. N. & Schrieffer, J. R. Phys. Rev. 108, 1175–1204 (1957).
Article Google Scholar
Ashcroft, N. W. Phys. Rev. Lett. 21, 1748–1749 (1968).
Article Google Scholar
McMahon, J. M., Morales, M. A., Pierleoni, C. & Ceperley, D. M. Rev. Mod. Phys. 84, 1607–1653 (2012).
Article Google Scholar
Ashcroft, N. W. Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 187002 (2004).
Article PubMed Google Scholar
Drozdov, A. P. et al. Nature 569, 528–531 (2019).
Article PubMed Google Scholar
Somayazulu, M. et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 027001 (2019).
Article PubMed Google Scholar
Li, Z. et al. Nature Commun. 13, 2863 (2022).
Article PubMed Google Scholar
Ma, L. et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 128, 167001 (2022).
Article PubMed Google Scholar
Keimer, B., Kivelson, S. A., Norman, M. R., Uchida, S. & Zaanen, J. Nature 518, 179–186 (2015).
Article PubMed Google Scholar
Ishida, K., Nakai, Y. & Hosono, H. J. Phys. Soc. Jpn 78, 62001 (2009).
Article Google Scholar
Snider, E. et al. Nature 586, 373–377 (2020).
Article PubMed Google Scholar
Snider, E. et al. Nature 610, 804 (2022).
Article PubMed Google Scholar
Duan, D. F. et al. Sci. Rep. 4, 6968 (2014).
Article PubMed Google Scholar
Peng, F. et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 107001 (2017).
Article PubMed Google Scholar
Wang, H., Tse, J. S., Tanaka, K., Iitaka, T. & Ma, Y. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 109, 6463–6466 (2012).
Article PubMed Google Scholar
Lauterbur, P. C. Nature 242, 190–191 (1973).
Article Google Scholar
Gao, G. et al. Mater. Today Phys. 21, 100546 (2021).
Article Google Scholar

Download references

Reprints and permissions

Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Subjects

Latest on:

Light-wave-controlled Haldane model in monolayer hexagonal boron nitride

Article 15 APR 24

Phononic switching of magnetization by the ultrafast Barnett effect

Article 10 APR 24

Direct observation of a magnetic-field-induced Wigner crystal

Article 10 APR 24

CERN’s impact goes way beyond tiny particles

Spotlight 17 APR 24

Laser spectroscopy of triply charged 229Th isomer for a nuclear clock

Article 17 APR 24

Corner- and edge-mode enhancement of near-field radiative heat transfer

Article 17 APR 24

Meet ‘goldene’: this gilded cousin of graphene is also one atom thick

News 18 APR 24

Light-wave-controlled Haldane model in monolayer hexagonal boron nitride

Article 15 APR 24

Selenium alloyed tellurium oxide for amorphous p-channel transistors

Article 10 APR 24

Jobs

Associate or Senior Editor, Nature Biomedical Engineering

Associate Editor or Senior Editor, Nature Biomedical Engineering Location: London, Shanghai and Madrid — Hybrid office and remote working Deadline:...

London (Central), London (Greater) (GB)

Springer Nature Ltd
FACULTY POSITION IN PATHOLOGY RESEARCH

Dallas, Texas (US)

The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UT Southwestern Medical Center)
Postdoc Fellow / Senior Scientist

The Yakoub and Sulzer labs at Harvard Medical School-Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Columbia University

Boston, Massachusetts (US)

Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital
Postdoc in Computational Genomics – Machine Learning for Multi-Omics Profiling of Cancer Evolution

Computational Postdoc - Artificial Intelligence in Oncology and Regulatory Genomics and Cancer Evolution at the DKFZ - limited to 2 years

Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg (DE)

German Cancer Research Center in the Helmholtz Association (DKFZ)
Computational Postdoc

The German Cancer Research Center is the largest biomedical research institution in Germany.

Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg (DE)

German Cancer Research Center in the Helmholtz Association (DKFZ)

[1] Chu, C. W. Physica C 482, 33–44 (2012).
Article Google Scholar

[2] Drozdov, A. P., Eremets, M. I., Troyan, I. A., Ksenofontov, V. & Shylin, S. I. Nature 525, 73–76 (2015).
Article PubMed Google Scholar

[3] Dasenbrock-Gammon, N. et al. Nature 615, 244–250 (2023).
Article Google Scholar

[4] Bardeen, J., Cooper, L. N. & Schrieffer, J. R. Phys. Rev. 108, 1175–1204 (1957).
Article Google Scholar

[5] Ashcroft, N. W. Phys. Rev. Lett. 21, 1748–1749 (1968).
Article Google Scholar

[6] McMahon, J. M., Morales, M. A., Pierleoni, C. & Ceperley, D. M. Rev. Mod. Phys. 84, 1607–1653 (2012).
Article Google Scholar

[7] Ashcroft, N. W. Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 187002 (2004).
Article PubMed Google Scholar

[8] Drozdov, A. P. et al. Nature 569, 528–531 (2019).
Article PubMed Google Scholar

[9] Somayazulu, M. et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 027001 (2019).
Article PubMed Google Scholar

[10] Li, Z. et al. Nature Commun. 13, 2863 (2022).
Article PubMed Google Scholar

[11] Ma, L. et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 128, 167001 (2022).
Article PubMed Google Scholar

[12] Keimer, B., Kivelson, S. A., Norman, M. R., Uchida, S. & Zaanen, J. Nature 518, 179–186 (2015).
Article PubMed Google Scholar

[13] Ishida, K., Nakai, Y. & Hosono, H. J. Phys. Soc. Jpn 78, 62001 (2009).
Article Google Scholar

[14] Snider, E. et al. Nature 586, 373–377 (2020).
Article PubMed Google Scholar

[15] Snider, E. et al. Nature 610, 804 (2022).
Article PubMed Google Scholar

[16] Duan, D. F. et al. Sci. Rep. 4, 6968 (2014).
Article PubMed Google Scholar

[17] Peng, F. et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 107001 (2017).
Article PubMed Google Scholar

[18] Wang, H., Tse, J. S., Tanaka, K., Iitaka, T. & Ma, Y. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 109, 6463–6466 (2012).
Article PubMed Google Scholar

[19] Lauterbur, P. C. Nature 242, 190–191 (1973).
Article Google Scholar

[20] Gao, G. et al. Mater. Today Phys. 21, 100546 (2021).
Article Google Scholar

Hopes raised for room-temperature superconductivity, but doubts remain

Access options

Updates & Corrections

References

Competing Interests

Subjects

Latest on:

Jobs

Associate or Senior Editor, Nature Biomedical Engineering

FACULTY POSITION IN PATHOLOGY RESEARCH

Postdoc Fellow / Senior Scientist

Postdoc in Computational Genomics – Machine Learning for Multi-Omics Profiling of Cancer Evolution

Computational Postdoc

Search

Quick links

Access options

Updates & Corrections

References

Competing Interests

Related Articles

Subjects

Latest on:

Jobs

Associate or Senior Editor, Nature Biomedical Engineering

FACULTY POSITION IN PATHOLOGY RESEARCH

Postdoc Fellow / Senior Scientist

Postdoc in Computational Genomics – Machine Learning for Multi-Omics Profiling of Cancer Evolution

Computational Postdoc

Search

Quick links