Funding Request in Partial Support of Second International Workshop "Towards Room-Temperature Superconductivity: Superhydrides and More"
Abstract
AbstractEver since the remarkable finding of Bednorz and Muller (1987) which led to the decades lastingrecord of highest temperature superconductor, most researchers in the area believed that oneshould not rely on the traditional theory of superconductivity when searching for roomtemperaturesuperconductors. However, at the very end of 2014, the attention of scientific community was captured by a report from Germany: superconductivity at temperatures close to 200K was detected by Dr. Mikhail Eremetz and his colleagues at very high pressures in H2S. Thediscovery was the result of long-running effort, the triumph of hope and hard work over manydoubts and failures. Dr. Eremetz himself was extremely careful about reporting this result. It wasnot until Dr. Defang Duan and colleagues (China) reported on computational evidence of high pressuresuperconductivity in this same material that the experimental results were made public.As the participants of the recent International Workshop on SUPERHYDRIDES: Towards RoomTemperature Superconductivity in Rome acknowledged, this was the first time that the theoretical prediction of a novel superconducting material preceded experiment. Thus, this discovery restored faith in the traditional theory when searching for more novel compositions,potentially at room temperatures and ambient pressures. And that is much more important than the 205K material itself!Many groups are attempting to theoretically predict materials which should superconduct at higher temperatures, even above room temperature. But the biggest problem is the pressure.Superconductors that require millions of atmospheres obviously cannot be used in practice. Oneshould search for materials which will be stable or metastable closer to ambient pressure. Thegoal is to synthesize a material that reaches a metastable state at high pressure, becoming asuperconductuctor, and which remains in that state when the pressure is brought down.Such an event has very recently occurred: a group from Griffith University in Australia has reported the observation of metastable superhydrides in PdH and PdD. Conventional superconductivity is known to exist in these compounds since 1972, but the previously knownTc s take place at around 10 K. By applying and then quickly reducing high pressure and temperature, the researchers obtained a metastable phase with resistive Tc s above 50 K. This is the first family of HTS driven by the conventional mechanism under ambient conditions. As with any new breakthrough, this raises many questions and still needs to be confirmed by otherinvestigators.There is no doubt that more such materials will be discovered soon. To accelerate thisprocess, the Second International Workshop Towards Room Temperature Superconductivity:SUPERHYDRIDES and MORE will be hosted by Chapman University in Los Angeles in 2017.While the workshop already accrued some sponsorship by private business, we request ONR fora modest support which will be very essential for successful accomplishment of tasks of thisimportant scientific gathering.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- May 05, 2017
- Source ID
- N000141712455
Entities
People
- Armen Gulian
Organizations
- Chapman University
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy