The resistive transition and Meissner effect in carbon nanotubes: Evidence for quasi-one-dimensional superconductivity above room temperature

TL;DR

This study presents evidence of quasi-one-dimensional superconductivity in carbon nanotubes, demonstrating resistive transitions consistent with theory and observing the Meissner effect up to room temperature, indicating potential for high-temperature superconductivity.

Contribution

It provides experimental evidence of high-temperature superconductivity in carbon nanotubes, including resistive transition analysis and Meissner effect observation up to room temperature.

Findings

Resistive transitions match LAMH theory for quasi-1D superconductors.

Meissner effect observed up to room temperature in aligned nanotubes.

Enhanced diamagnetic susceptibility due to Josephson coupling in nanotube bundles.

Abstract

It is well known that copper-based perovskite oxides rightly enjoy consensus as high-temperature superconductors on the basis of two signatures: the resistive transition and the Meissner effect. We show that the resistive transitions in carbon nanotubes agree quantitatively with the Langer-Ambegaokar-McCumber-Halperin (LAMH) theory for quasi-1D superconductors although the superconducting transition temperatures can vary from 0.4 K to 750 K for different samples. We have also identified the Meissner effect in the field parallel to the tube axis up to room temperature for aligned and physically separated multi-walled nanotubes (MWNTs). The magnitude of the Meissner effect is in quantitative agreement with the predicted penetration depth from the measured carrier density. Furthermore, the bundling of individual MWNTs into closely packed bundles leads to a large enhancement in the diamagnetic susceptibility, which is the hallmark of the Josephson coupling among the tubes in bundles. These results consistently indicate quasi-1D high-temperature superconductivity in carbon nanotubes.