Unveiling pressurized bulk superconductivity in a trilayer nickelate Pr4Ni3O10 single crystal

TL;DR

This study reports the discovery of pressurized bulk superconductivity in Pr4Ni3O10 single crystals, with a maximum Tc of 39 K, revealing structural and electronic features similar to other high-temperature superconductors.

Contribution

The paper demonstrates the emergence of superconductivity in Pr4Ni3O10 under high pressure and details its structural and electronic transitions, expanding understanding of nickelate superconductors.

Findings

Superconductivity appears above 10 GPa with Tc up to 39 K.

Structural transition from monoclinic to tetragonal occurs at high pressure.

Electronic structure shows metallization and van Hove singularity near the Fermi level.

Abstract

The recent discovery of superconductivity in pressurized Ruddlesden-Popper (RP) nickelates has provided new perspectives on the mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity. Up to now, most experiments concentrated on the lanthanum-related RP phase, so the discovery of new superconducting RP nickelates is highly desirable to reveal their generality. Here we report that high-quality Pr4Ni3O10 single crystal is grown with an optical floating zone furnace under high oxygen pressure. High-pressure transport measurements show that the superconducting state arises above 10 GPa, and the maximum Tc reaches 39 K without saturation, significantly exceeding the value of 25-30 K of La4Ni3O10. Ultrasensitive d.c. magnetic susceptibility measurements under high pressure indicate bulk superconductivity with appreciable superconducting volume fractions. By performing in situ high-pressure synchrotron X-ray diffraction measurements at 16 K, a structural transition is found from monoclinic to tetragonal. Unlike La4Ni3O10, the electronic structure of the high-pressure phase of Pr4Ni3O10 from density functional theory exhibits a dramatic metallization of the sigma-bonding band consisting of three dz2 orbitals and van Hove singularity of coupled bands of dx2-y2 orbitals near the Fermi level, similar to the bilayer nickelate La3Ni2O7. These findings reveal some generic features of both crystal and electronic structures for high-temperature superconductivity in nickelates and multi-layer cuprates.