Imaging the Meissner effect in hydride superconductors using quantum sensors

P Bhattacharyya; W Chen; X Huang; S Chatterjee; B Huang; B Kobrin; Y Lyu; T J Smart; M Block; E Wang; Z Wang; W Wu; S Hsieh; H Ma; S Mandyam; B Chen; E Davis; Z M Geballe; C Zu; V Struzhkin; R Jeanloz; J E Moore; T Cui; G Galli; B I Halperin; C R Laumann; N Y Yao

doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07026-7

Imaging the Meissner effect in hydride superconductors using quantum sensors

Nature. 2024 Mar;627(8002):73-79. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07026-7. Epub 2024 Feb 28.

Authors

P Bhattacharyya^#^{1

2}, W Chen^#³, X Huang^#³, S Chatterjee^{1

4}, B Huang⁵, B Kobrin^{1

2}, Y Lyu¹, T J Smart^{1

6}, M Block⁷, E Wang⁸, Z Wang⁷, W Wu⁷, S Hsieh^{1

2}, H Ma⁵, S Mandyam⁷, B Chen⁷, E Davis¹, Z M Geballe⁹, C Zu¹⁰, V Struzhkin¹¹, R Jeanloz⁶, J E Moore^{1

2}, T Cui^{3

12}, G Galli^{5

13

14}, B I Halperin⁷, C R Laumann¹⁵, N Y Yao^{16

17

18}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.
² Materials Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA.
³ State Key Laboratory of Superhard Materials, College of Physics, Jilin University, Changchun, China.
⁴ Department of Physics, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
⁵ Department of Chemistry, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
⁶ Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.
⁷ Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁸ Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁹ Earth and Planets Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Physics, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA.
¹¹ Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research, Shanghai, China.
¹² School of Physical Science and Technology, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China.
¹³ Materials Science Division and Center for Molecular Engineering, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, IL, USA.
¹⁴ Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
¹⁵ Department of Physics, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA.
¹⁶ Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. nyao@fas.harvard.edu.
¹⁷ Materials Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA. nyao@fas.harvard.edu.
¹⁸ Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA. nyao@fas.harvard.edu.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 38418887
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07026-7

Abstract

By directly altering microscopic interactions, pressure provides a powerful tuning knob for the exploration of condensed phases and geophysical phenomena¹. The megabar regime represents an interesting frontier, in which recent discoveries include high-temperature superconductors, as well as structural and valence phase transitions^2-6. However, at such high pressures, many conventional measurement techniques fail. Here we demonstrate the ability to perform local magnetometry inside a diamond anvil cell with sub-micron spatial resolution at megabar pressures. Our approach uses a shallow layer of nitrogen-vacancy colour centres implanted directly within the anvil^7-9; crucially, we choose a crystal cut compatible with the intrinsic symmetries of the nitrogen-vacancy centre to enable functionality at megabar pressures. We apply our technique to characterize a recently discovered hydride superconductor, CeH₉ (ref. ¹⁰). By performing simultaneous magnetometry and electrical transport measurements, we observe the dual signatures of superconductivity: diamagnetism characteristic of the Meissner effect and a sharp drop of the resistance to near zero. By locally mapping both the diamagnetic response and flux trapping, we directly image the geometry of superconducting regions, showing marked inhomogeneities at the micron scale. Our work brings quantum sensing to the megabar frontier and enables the closed-loop optimization of superhydride materials synthesis.