Abstract
THE recent discovery of superconductivity in a number of alloys containing boron and carbon has revived interest in the field of intermetallic superconductors1–3. Although two structural forms have now been identified4–6, most of the new intermetallic supercon-ductors have a crystal structure typified by that of the quaternary alloy LuNi2B2C, in which layers of rock-salt-structured LuC alternate with nickel boride tetrahedra4'5. The range of supercon-ducting intermetallic compounds was extended recently by the dis-covery of superconductivity in a system of quaternary boro-nitride alloys, La-Ni-B-N (ref. 7). Here we report the structure of the superconducting phase in this system, La3Ni2B2N3, together with that of the related non-superconducting phase, LaNiBN. We find that these two phases are members of a homologous series (LaN)n(Ni2B2), with n = 3 and n = 2, respectively. Furthermore, our samples contain planar defects that suggest the existence of phases with larger n. Varying the number, n, of LaN layers within this system might thus provide a way to investigate the effect of dimensionality on the superconducting properties of intermetallics.
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Zandbergen, H., Jansen, J., Cavai, R. et al. Structure of the 13-K superconductor La3Ni2B2N3 and the related phase LaNiBN. Nature 372, 759–761 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1038/372759a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/372759a0
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